{"id":7650,"date":"2024-07-26T18:46:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T21:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7650"},"modified":"2024-07-30T10:07:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T13:07:55","slug":"nova-scotia-health-hopes-to-pare-back-doctor-waitlist-with-summer-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/07\/26\/nova-scotia-health-hopes-to-pare-back-doctor-waitlist-with-summer-outreach\/","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia Health hopes to pare back doctor waitlist with summer outreach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nova Scotia Health staff are calling people on the need-a-family-practice registry to make sure they still need a primary care provider. (Pixabay)<\/p><\/div>\n

A group of 40 student recruits has started calling Nova Scotians to see if they still need a family doctor.<\/span><\/p>\n

And with more than 160,000 people across Nova Scotia on the need-a-family-practice registry, it\u2019s going to be a busy summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noella Whelan, the senior director of the primary care and chronic disease management network for Nova Scotia Health, is heading up the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said the department did a similar telephone campaign last summer, when more than 152,000 were on the list. That resulted in more than 21,000 people identified who could be struck from the waitlist. It also resulted in 6,000 people being assigned a primary care provider.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur systems are not automated so it relies on the individuals that put their name on the list to take their names off the list,” she told QCCR.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This is a more proactive mechanism for us to reach out to individuals and determine if they have already been connected to a primary care practice in Nova Scotia. And so often we do find that there are individuals that have been connected to a primary care provider who are still on the list.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whelan said they doubled the number of temporary staff making calls this summer, from 20 last year. She said there are about 10 other permanent Nova Scotia Health employees on the project in supervisory and co-ordinator roles. Hiring the student recruits will cost about $532,000, according to a Nova Scotia Health spokeswoman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have heard from patients and families the concern about where to go for care,” Whelan said. “So we want to make sure we’re connecting with folks to understand, do they need a primary care provider? Do we have their contact information so that when we reach out to them do we have accurate information? … Out of the campaign last summer there were a number of tools developed to help individuals understand where to go for care. We just want to make sure that those that are waiting know where to access care.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Operators will also be confirming with people whether their doctor has retired. Whelan says the department doesn\u2019t always know if a general practitioner has retired.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure we\u2019ve confirmed that and are able to then connect them to a primary care provider when one becomes available.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whelan says the project will also give Nova Scotia Health a chance to tell people where else they can access care while they wait for a doctor or nurse practitioner. Staff will also remind people to fill out the health questionnaire on the need-a-family-practice registration site<\/a>. People can also use that form to remove themselves from the registry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is money well spent. Certainly we’ve heard from the public, from patients’ families that they want a more direct contact with the system to understand how to navigate services.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Calls will show up as either unknown name and number or from a blocked caller.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Staff won\u2019t ask for any personal information besides the last four digits of your Nova Scotia health card and your birth date.<\/span><\/p>\n

They will also ask for confirmation of your phone number and physical and email addresses.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If they do receive a call and they are not able to respond, if we have their email on file, we\u2019ll send them an email, and say, ‘We’ve attempted to call you, please call us back. Or we’ll make a call at this time during the next day or so.’ That way, Nova Scotians will know this is a legitimate initiative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whelan said in the first week of calls, they haven\u2019t had many people refuse to answer to give information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are just in a week or so of calls, so most folks are engaging in conversation and able to verify it is Nova Scotia Health calling. We certainly do have a few (refusals), but we expect that anyway.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The project is expected to last until Aug. 31.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/familypracticecallsjuly2624.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of 40 student recruits has started calling Nova Scotians to see if they still need a family doctor. And with more than 160,000 people across Nova Scotia on the need-a-family-practice registry, it\u2019s going to be a busy summer. Noella Whelan, the senior director of the primary care and chronic disease management network for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[2510,2522,1595,2525,2508,2523,241,537,2511,1927,2524,2512],"class_list":["post-7650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-doctor","tag-doctor-waitlist","tag-health-care","tag-health-questionnaire","tag-need-a-family-practice-registry","tag-noella-whelan","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nova-scotia-health","tag-nurse-practitioner","tag-primary-care","tag-primary-care-and-chronic-disease-management-network","tag-primary-care-provider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7653,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7650\/revisions\/7653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}