Collaborative care clinics make for healthy businesses

Published Tuesday May 4th, 2010
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At first glance, you may be wondering about the connection between the collaborative clinic model of health-care delivery and the success of Fredericton's businesses. I believe it to be significant.

Fredericton has one of the lowest unemployment rates in New Brunswick, and at 4.9 per cent as of March, we're also well below the national average.

This low rate means that local staff can be hard to find when a business has an open position. Frequently, companies have to consider candidates from outside of our city and province to fill vacancies.

When trying to convince someone to relocate for work, businesses need to showcase not only the job and their company, but our city and its amenities as well.

Many potential hires bring with them spouses and children and are extremely interested in the availability and quality of our childcare, education and health-care services.

Inquiries about the difficulty of finding a family doctor are common. Our waiting list of 2,500-3,000 patients discourages many potential employees from relocating to Fredericton and working for our businesses.

The Horizon Health Network is working hard to recruit family practitioners to Fredericton, but more needs to be done. The doctors set to retire in the next five years will leave 23,200 Frederictonians looking for a family physician.

Graduating doctors expect to take on about 1,200 patients each, so we need to recruit 20 new doctors just to cover those retirements, and that doesn't address the waiting list or any community growth.

For Fredericton businesses to maintain or grow their operations, they need family physicians in our community. That's why the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce launched a physician recruitment initiative in 2008.

We've been working with local medical organizations to help make Fredericton the destination of choice for family doctors. In doing so, we've learned a few critical lessons.

The majority of new doctors want to practise medicine in collaborative-care clinics.

The chamber hosted a reception for medical student residents last year, and all of the attendees expressed a preference for collaborative care over fee-for-service practices.

Feedback from the recruitment of doctors also shows more than 63 per cent are seeking collaborative practices.

A collaborative-care clinic is one in which multiple doctors, nurse practitioners and licensed nurses, specialists and assistants share space, equipment and patient loads in order to deliver high-quality health care efficiently.

The Gibson Street Medical Clinic is the only such model in Fredericton and has been successful since opening in 2004.

Collaborative-care clinics offer many benefits to both the patients and the province. With records shared among a team of doctors, waiting times for appointments decrease and urgent needs are more easily met.

Doctors can spend more time with their patients, less on administration and can learn from each other in a team setting.

There are also savings to be had in moving from single practice units to collaborative practices. Rather than the province funding multiple small offices, equipment and support staff, it can consolidate expenses in a clinic.

Add in co-location with a pharmacy and the customer service soars.

But the most important benefit of the creation of collaborative-care clinics is in its impact on our recruitment efforts.

Competition to attract doctors is stiff across the country, and if Fredericton can offer this desired model of practice to new doctors, the advantage will be ours.

New doctors will choose our city, and we'll be able to ride the wave of upcoming retirements successfully.

The establishment of collaborative-care clinics isn't on the radar of the Health Department. The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce has amassed significant support for this model from all major stakeholders in the health-services delivery sector.

Together, we will be encouraging the government to be progressive, to act quickly to make collaborative care a priority for Fredericton and New Brunswick in order to assure the long-term health of our people.

We'd like your help. Is your doctor retiring in the near future? What will you do then? Tell your local MLA that you want to see collaborative-care clinics in Fredericton.

As we win the talent war for doctors and defeat our waiting list, Fredericton businesses become empowered to win their recruitment battles.

With a modern, thriving health-care system and strong, healthy companies, everyone in Fredericton wins.

Susan Holt is the CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce. She'd love to hear from you at susanh@frederictonchamber.ca.