Patient-Centered Care the Defining Feature of the Patient's Medical Home

CFPC releases vision for the future of family practice in Canada: The Patient's Medical Home

OTTAWA, September 21, 2011 /Canada NewsWire/ - The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) today released "A Vision for Canada: Family Practice: The Patient's Medical Home" that provides goals and recommendations for timely access to medical and health care services for all Canadians through their family practice settings.

"Canadians want timely access to health care, and better coordinated care for all their health care needs," said Dr. Robert Boulay, President of the CFPC. "They want a personal family doctor to provide and coordinate their care. Most people without a family doctor want one, and those with family physicians want timely access to appointments. Patients also want better access to appointments and coordination of information related to care they need throughout the rest of the health care community - be it consultations with other specialists, hospital and emergency department care, long term care, pharmacies, labs, diagnostic imaging, physiotherapy and other treatment centers or services needed in their own homes. The vision of the 'Patient's Medical Home' aims to meet the needs of Canadians for a family practice which will serve as the hub, or home base to provide or arrange and coordinate the range of medical and health care services needed by its patients."

"In keeping with the history of the specialty of family medicine, Patients' Medical Homes are patient-centred, focused on meeting the health and wellness needs of each person and providing enhanced opportunities for participation of patients in both their own care as well as the decisions related to the delivery of services in the practice," said Dr. Calvin Gutkin, CFPC Executive Director and CEO. "With a team of health professionals, nurses and others working together - physically or virtually - with the patient's family physician, Canadians will benefit from timely access to comprehensive, continuing, coordinated care centered on their needs. The CFPC vision is that every person in Canada - whether they live in a rural, suburban or urban community, will have the opportunity to be part of a family practice that serves as their personal medical home."

"It is good news, " said CFPC President Elect Dr. Sandy Buchman "that over the past few years several family practice models incorporating the patient's medical home elements have begun to emerge in different parts of Canada with encouraging early results related to both patient and provider satisfaction. To make this work however will require ongoing system supports, including funding to support the transition from paper records to electronic medical records. The federal-provincial -territorial health accord that ends in 2014 must not only be extended for at least another decade, it must also maintain and augment its commitment to primary care and family practice which are essential to the health outcomes of our population."

The College of Family Physicians of Canada is the voice of family medicine in Canada. Representing over 26,000 family physician members across the country, it is the professional organization responsible for establishing standards for the training, certification and lifelong education of family physicians and for advocating on behalf of the specialty of family medicine, family physicians and their patients. The CFPC accredits postgraduate family medicine training in Canada's 17 medical schools.

Info online at Patient's Medical Home