When VCH-Richmond clinicians met face-to-face with family doctors in February to talk about Home and Community services, the information was so well-received that every physician in the room said they would recommend the event to a colleague.

The goal of the event was to educate doctors about the VCH services available—and how to access them—to support the care they provide to their patients in Richmond. It was hosted by the Richmond Division of Family Practice in response to member-identified needs.

Highlighting VCH’s services

Using a “World Café” approach, which allows for smaller group discussions, Richmond’s Home and Community Care team spoke about the services VCH offers. Topics included:

• Palliative care
• Ambulatory and community-based services
• Care transitions from acute to community
• Case management
• Home care intake/nursing/rehab

“There are so many services available that physicians do not know about,” says Dr. Cheryl Nagle, a family physician who attended the event. “Meeting face-to-face with the home health clinicians was a great way to learn about some of them. I now have a better understanding of how easy it is to ask for their support.”

What did family physicians say about the event?

A survey of the 32 family physicians who attended was overwhelmingly positive:

• Ninety-seven per cent rated the usefulness of the topics in relation to their practice as “high” or “very high.”
• One hundred per cent of physicians rated the quality and relevance of the information provided as “high” or “very high.”

They suggested that future events could provide an inventory of Home and Community Care services, repeat topics such as case management and chronic disease management for new attendees, and add other topics like care conferencing, mild dementia as a chronic condition and transitions from hospital to community.

Ongoing collaboration

Clients benefit from the collaboration between home health clinicians and family doctors. Richmond’s home health team, like other teams across VCH, have been increasing the number of GP care conferences they hold with the family physician of shared clients who have complex needs. This fiscal year, the team has held over 150 care conferences.

“This event was a wonderful way to connect our home health team with GPs in Richmond,” says Priya Chetty, manager of community and ambulatory services in Richmond. “We more than achieved our main objective of increasing awareness of home health programs. We also created opportunities for engagement both for referrals to home health and for working collaboratively with GPs.”