Sunrise opens innovation centre

Eight years in the making, Sunrise Health Region's Health and Wellness Centre is open for business.

Touted as an "innovation centre," the concept is of collaborative delivery of primary health care by professionals of various disciplines.

The grand opening November 27 was a celebratory event, but Dr. Phillip Fourie, Sunrise senior medical officer (SMO), told gathered dignitaries, staff and guests that the facility was an important milestone, but not the goal of the project.

"This is only the beginning of a journey," he explained. "What I meant was that this is a huge milestone that we achieved by getting multiple providers into one space, but this is not where it ends. What we need to do now is we need to continuously improve the delivery model that we have for our patients.

"We also have to spread this throughout the region because we have to have equality of service everywhere in our health region so that someone who goes to Preeceville or to Foam Lake or to Canora has got the same quality of care as when they come to the innovation site in Yorkton."

Dustin Duncan, Saskatchewan's minister of health, was very impressed.

"First of all the building itself, the way that the design has been laid out, it's really patient-first, patient-focussed, he said.

"There's a lot of innovation being incorporated into the design of the facility and especially ensuring that not only providers were part of the design but also patients themselves, patient representatives, were actually part of creating this facility so the physical design of it is impressive, but I think more importantly the model of care that is going to be delivered in this facility, a team-based approach, a patient-first approach where people can come for the most part under one roof and the services will now come to the patient and there will be a much better collaboration between physicians, nurse practitioners, dieticians, diabetes nurse educators and so forth."

Fourie said collaboration has been an integral part of the project from the beginning bringing together 36 people including client representatives, health care providers and senior management.

"I think this project absolutely demonstrated that you can't do anything on your own," he said. "With a team effort you get such a better product and that goes the same thing for health care delivery. When you have that team delivered care, it's a much better product than what you can get on your own."

The design of the building reflects the team approach. All of the providers, including three physicians, a diabetes nurse educator, two nurse practitioners, a primary health nutritionist, a pulmonary and coronary rehabilitation facilitator, clinical assistants, an exercise therapist, a pharmacist and a manager, are located together in an open-concept central hub where they can easily consult face-to-face on client care.

Surrounding the hub are examination rooms, which patients access from the hallway and staff access from the inside.

The clinicians are also all electronically connected to each other so that patients can have a single record containing all the pertinent medical history. The region intends to extend this functionality across the region and ultimately the Province plans to adopt one-patient, one-record universally.

"It is wonderful to come for care in this centre and to know I had input into the plans that make it work well for clients," said Dave Matichuk, one of the client advisors. "As a client it is especially reassuring to know that my health providers are well-connected and that I am able to benefit from their combined expertise.