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The Huron Expositor • December 6, 2006 Page 11
Clinton fam ily health team up and running
Six doctors and five allied health professionals round out team at Clinton clinic
Jennifer Hubbard
With a second nurse -practitioner
starting work on Monday, Clinton's
new Family Health Team (FHT) is
up and running.
Three new staff members have
been hired — nurse practitioners
Patti McManus and Jennifer
Blackhall and administrative lead
Kim Van Wyk since the July
announcement that Clinton would
house its own team and more may
be on the way, according to Van
Wyk.
"We're working on plans to reno-
vate the building to make it more
accessible for our allied health pro-
fessionals," she said. "We've been
approved for more than what we
already have, but we don't have
anywhere to put them right now."
All six of Clinton's doctors have
signed onto the team — Dr. Maarten
Bokhout, Dr. Keith Hay, Dr. Jan.
Raczycki, Dr. Peter Salsbury, Dr.
Martin Salter, and Dr. Marianne
Smith.
A dietician, social- worker and psy-
chologist have also been approved.
However, because Clinton is still
under -serviced, Van Wyk said the
team still needs at least one more
physician.
"Our family health team
very attractive in
recruiting because
there's support from
all of the other allied
health professionals,"
she explained.
"(Doctors) are not
working on their own,
plus they'll have
access to a newly ren-
ovated building."
Prior to the July 13
announcement by
Ontario Minister of
Health and Long -
Term Care George
Smitherman, Clinton
was to be a part of the
Huron FHT, based in
Seaforth.
"Seaforth was hav-
ing difficulties getting
their doctors to sign on, whereas
ours were ready to go. There were
differences in philosophies as to
'how the teams were going to be
run," Van Wyk explained.
"So, instead of losing the family
health team completely, George
Smitherman split the team in, two
allowing up to both work on the
will be
model that we wanted."
Van Wyk said governance was the
main difference between
the two FHT plans.
(,)ri()I(.41
`Seaton was
having
difficulties
getting their
doctors to sign
on, whereas
ours were
ready to go,'--
Kim Van Wyk
Clinton FHT
administrative lead
Seaforth wanted its
team to be governed by
the community, while
Clinton representatives
were hoping for more
input from the
providers.
An existing Family
Health Network of doc-
tors and computerized
medical record system —
implemented in 2003
and 2005, respectively
— made the transition
easier in Clinton.
The Clinton FHT is
one of 150 created by
the Dalton McGuinty
government since April
2005.
"We know that people don't get
sick conveniently between the hours
of nine and five," said Huron -Bruce
MPP Carol Mitchell in a Nov. 7
press release.
"Central Huron residents will
benefit from improved access to
health care services thanks to our
new family health team and its
Healthcare Alliance featured
on Winner's Circle TV segment
Susan H u n d e r t m a r k
41111111111111111211111111111
The Huron -Perth Healthcare Alliance was
pulled into the Winner's Circle recently when
a two -minute Broadcast News Corp. segment
was aired Nov 27 at 7:15 a.m. on cable chan-
nels on StarChoice and Rogers.
"They approached us as an organization
that is innovative and it broadens our profile,"
Seaforth site administrator Mary Cardinal
recently told members of the Seaforth
Community Hospital Local Advisory
Committee (LAC).
"It's great to be out there. This is just anoth-
er way to promote our identity," she said,
The Winner's Circle, hosted by retired
Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback Terry
Bradshaw, is a company of Dallas -based Lyric
Media which according to its website, "high-
lights companies and organizations that rep-
resent the backbone of America's economy."
"Broadcast News initially contacted us. In
discussions with them, they stated that they
wanted to do a segment on Canadian health-
care and, through research of sources such as
websites, had included us as one of the orga-
nizations they were talking to," said Alliance
CEO Andrew Williams.
Williams said the Alliance agreed to make
the video, which cost the Alliance an undis-
closed amount of money, to use it as a recruit-
ment tool.
The segment on the Alliance only aired once
on Channel 185 for Rogers and Channel 511
for StarChoice and will not be shown again.
Williams said it's hard to gauge how many
people actually saw the segment but adds the
Alliance will be able to show it for a year from
its webpage.
As well, the Alliance will be able to use a
five-minute corporate ver-
sion which "gives us some-
thing `unique and in hand'
to use in the ever -more
competitive recruitment
environment, said
Williams.
While he would not
release the amount spent
by the Alliance for the pro-
duction costs of the TV seg-
ment, Williams said,
"Based on our experience
with other videos made for
the Alliance over the past
couple of years, costs were
not out of line."
Cardinal said quite a bit
of the footage, gleaned
from other promotional
videos, was set at the
Seaforth , Community
Hospital campus.
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staff, including our newest nurse
practitioners and registered nurs-
es."
Both FHTs will be run by a board
of directors. Clinton's board current-
ly consists of four members — one
representative from Community
Care Access Centre (CCAC), Huron
County Health Unit and Huron -
Perth Healthcare Alliance and a
local physician.
Clinton's FHT business plan was
approved by the provincial govern-
ment in August.
McManus was hired that month,
with Van Wyk following in October
and Blackhall in December. Van
Wyk is also a registered nurse.
The team operates out of the med-
ical centre across. from the Clinton
Public Hospital.
"We want to ensure that Clinton -
area residents have access to prima-
ry health care and illness treat-
ment, but also begin focussing on
disease prevention," Van Wyk said.
"Another goal of the FHT is to
increase the enrollment of patients
for each physician. Once we have
our allied professionals in place,
they will be doing their part and
make physicians more available to
take on additional patients."
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