Providence Health Care

Regional Radiology Improvement

GPs in the VCH region will work with Hospital and community diagnostic imaging (DI) clinics to reduce patient wait times, improve communication between providers and patients and provide clinical materials to ensure most appropriate DI is requested.

Virtual Psychiatry Consultations (VPC)

The VPC prototype is part of the Shared Care Adult Mental Health and Substance Use Spread Network. VPC aims to use virtual visits to improve access to psychiatry for patients with a suspected anxiety, depressive, bipolar or schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The initiative also encourages enhanced coordination of care between psychiatrists and family physicians via post-consult debrief calls. After testing the VPC model in Vancouver, the project team hopes to expand it to other communities in BC.

eCASE - Electronic Consultative Access to Specialists

Endorse the continuation and controlled expansion of the eCASE prototype so that the electronic Consultative Access to Specialist Expertise can be expanded to more Specialist services, offered to more Family Physicians in the VCH region and be more thoroughly evaluated to inform discussions of value to the Patient Medical Home and fee codes. 

Regional Respiratory Referral

The Regional Respiratory Referral project is developing and testing a consolidated and optimized referral form for hospital-based respirology clinics throughout the Vancouver Coastal region. The working group includes family physicians, respirologists and respirology clinic staff.

Post-COVID-19 Collaborative Care

Some patients continue to experience significant COVID-19-related symptoms for months after infection. The Post-COVID-19 Collaborative Care project aims to support primary care providers in the provision of post-infection care and improve coordination of care with the Post-COVID-19 Recovery Clinics.

Coordinating dementia with chronic conditions

The Shared Care team at Providence Health Care is working on a project to enable coordinated care for people with dementia and other co-morbid conditions. The focus is specifically on improving the communication channels between specialists and family physicians (via a 1-page dementia checklist with billing prompts) and patients (via a companion dementia passport). This project has brought together a group of Vancouver City Centre stakeholders (physicians, patients, community service providers, clinical operations leaders and clinicians) to ensure all aspect of the whole dementia journey are considered.

Rapid Access to Consultative Expertise - RACE

Telephone advice line for family physicians and nurse practitioners where they can easily connect with a specialist for advice usually within a few minutes.   A provincial integrated approach is being led by PHC and the RACE app will be upgraded to make the connection even easier.