“You saved my life.”

These powerful words changed the trajectory of my medical career. When a patient said this to me after a misdiagnosis and living with an unknown illness for decades, I knew my instincts were right. She was referred to me at my Specialists Team Care practice. That made her not only my patient, but the patient of a team that included nurses and administrative staff. Together, our entire team worked to provide her with the care she needed. From early on in my career, I knew that reducing my waitlist while providing quality care wasn't something I'd be able to do alone.

In an era of increasingly complex healthcare needs, the traditional model of one doctor, one patient is proving inadequate. The solution lies in Specialists Team Care (STC), a collaboration-based care model that brings together health professionals from various disciplines. This framework not only improves clinic efficiency and patient outcomes, it also enhances the job-satisfaction and wellbeing of healthcare workers.

STC is a model which clinics can use to structure the distribution of work and methods of communication among their teams. By distributing clinical workload among specialized team members, the STC model significantly streamlines healthcare processes. This efficiency not only reduces the time patients spend waiting for care but also increases the capacity of the healthcare system to treat a larger number of patients effectively and promptly.

Health professionals are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate. Many cite burnout. Some want better work-life balance. Others don't want to keep working in a system that increasingly does not work. Imagine a healthcare system that alleviates the burden on individual healthcare professionals, one that gives healthcare workers the ability to deliver high quality care to more patients, while offering a more manageable workload within a supportive work environment. This approach enhances communication among providers, leading to clearer care plans, fewer errors, and a smoother healthcare experience for patients

Healthcare professionals have unique skillsets. Physicians aren't trained in HR, accounting, or running a business; yet in our current system, physicians spend much of their time on these administrative tasks, taking them away from doing what they are trained and eager to do — see patients. The Specialists Team Care model allows physicians to focus on their key responsibilities - diagnosing, treating, and problem solving, making life much easier for them, and improving care for patients.

Patients in British Columbia deserve the reassurance that when they are ill, they will receive timely care from a family doctor or specialist. Lengthy hours in emergency rooms or extended periods on waitlists don't just fail to help, they actively harm patients.

Most of the STC pilot sites have achieved a remarkable increase of over 100% in patient visits within six months. I believe in this model of care so much, I've left my practice to devote myself full-time to advocating for its widespread adoption across British Columbia.

We often hear "two heads are better than one." So why not a whole team?

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Learn more about how Specialists Team Care is improving healthcare outcomes in B.C.