Transforming Care with Creativity and Innovation
Across Ontario, family physicians have become experts at adaptation, responding with agility to the constant disruptions of COVID-19. Their efforts go above and beyond to serve the top priority: delivering the highest quality care to patients, no matter what.
As the province strives to limit the spread of COVID-19 and distribute vaccines, family doctors have stepped up – not only supporting vaccination efforts but also innovating their practices to continue serving their communities and to help relieve the strain on hospitals. Here are some of their stories.
Making a connection–despite challenges
The pandemic shines a light on the flexibility, adaptability, and ingenuity of family doctors facing challenges they’ve never seen before.
Stratford’s Dr. Stacey Snider manages a full practice of almost 2,000 patients and has stayed on-call throughout the pandemic to provide obstetric care—all while taking care of her own five kids.
To say the pandemic has been hectic would be an understatement—she recounts conducting virtual visits from her bathroom when it was the only private place in her house—but like so many family physicians across the province, she chooses to focus on the unforgettable career firsts that have come about because of it.
What stands out?
“Delivering babies behind goggles, shields, masks, and neck-to-floor gowns, but still finding a way to cheer on patients and connect with them through the most important moment of their lives.”
Sometimes it’s a delight to transcend barriers to bring patients much-needed reassurance: “I learned to do silly dances to make kids comfortable, since my smile is hidden,” says Dr. Snider.
Evidence to spur change
Vaccination is key to flattening the COVID-19 curve and, like many family doctors, Dr. Tali Bogler is not only an eager participant in vaccination initiatives, but also an incredible advocate with more to give.
Dr. Bogler, of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, made headlines by championing the need for pregnant women to be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination. She and her peers leapt into action to advocate, based on emerging evidence, resulting in a change to vaccination criteria that designated pregnancy as one of the “highest risk” conditions for COVID-19.
Dr. Bogler looks to social media to connect with, listen to, and support the pregnant community through Facebook Live sessions and @PandemicPregnancyGuide – initiatives that fill a gap with COVID-19 information specific to pregnancy and its unique considerations for navigating the virus.
Beating burnout with a bot
With clinicians drowning in electronic and paper information, Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia turned to the insurance and banking industries for inspiration. The Kitchener-Waterloo family doctor, a leader in the field of Digital Health, found that the use of bots and artificial intelligence helped reduce time-consuming and repetitive tasks by about 30 per cent.
Along with his team at the eHealth Centre of Excellence, Dr. Alarakhia created automated software that replicates the actions of a human — a bot he calls “Bernie” — to help physicians and their staff reduce the number of manual tasks they must perform.
“I think about the COVID-19 pandemic. How do clinicians easily identify high-risk patients for assessment or vaccination without a lot of manual effort?” he asks. “Having a bot do that would be extremely helpful.”
By automating information management in medical clinics, such as flagging when appointments are due or following up on test results, Dr. Alarakhia says physicians can spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork. “Bernie burns out so clinicians don’t have to.”
Source: CMA Joule, April 7, 2021
Delivering critical care to the doorstep
At a time when virtual is the first and safest option for most patient visits, Dr. Kaitlin Dupuis’ team has seen a surge in consultations that require in-person visits, especially issues related to reproductive health.
“We knew we needed to modify how we were serving patients in order to keep everyone safe,” says Dr. Dupuis.
The clinical team took steps to identify how needed care could best be delivered to the patient – virtually, in-person or as a combination – and then streamlined the process for doing so.
In some cases, the solution combines delivery of supplies directly to the patient’s home following a virtual assessment. In other instances, according to Dr. Dupuis, in-person visits remain appropriate: “We made it a priority for patients to keep being able to access appointments for insertion of long-acting contraceptives and hormone therapy.”
Teaming up to transform
Public Health measures bring restrictions that can be a barrier to patient care. Dr. Patricia Mouaikel of Ottawa recounts a particularly poignant case. “I have dealt with a particularly challenging situation where one of my patients became palliative during the pandemic, and since he was hard of hearing, I was not able to communicate with him via telephone.”
Conducting appointments virtually, through the patient’s daughter, who herself was not allowed into the retirement home, was emotionally draining for everyone, says Dr. Mouaikel. But perseverance paid off. “Luckily, the palliative care team was able to make sure that my patient passed away peacefully at home. The family was very appreciative of the care my patient received, despite the challenges that we encountered.”
Teamwork is key, including the nurses, administrators, and specialists who spend thousands of hours connecting with patients in clinics or at home.
“More than ever, this whole experience has been a team effort, and without each and everyone’s help we would not have been able to continue being there for our patients. I am very grateful for each and everyone on our team.”
Learn more about the work Ontario family physicians are doing to keep their patients and communities safe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.