Canada’s vision for the patient’s medical home

Family Practice – A Patent’s Medical Home : A Vision for Canada

Objectives

1. Every person in Canada will have the opportunity to be part of a family practice that serves as a Patient’s Medical Home for themselves and their families.
2. Patients’ Medical Homes will produce the best possible health outcomes for the patients, the practice populations, and the communities they serve.
3. Patients’ Medical Homes will reinforce the importance of the Four Principles of FamilyMedicine for both family physicians and their patients.
   The Four Principles of Family Medicine: the patient–doctor relationship is central, the family physician is a skilled clinician, the family physician serves as resource to his or her practice population, and family medicine is community-based.

Goals

1. Patient centered
   Provide services that are responsive to patients’ and their families’ feelings, preferences, and expectations
2. Personal family physician
   The most responsible provider of a given patient’s medical care
   Every person in Canada should have a personal family physician
3. Team-based care
   Offer a broad scope of services carried out by teams or networks of clinicians; inclusive of nurses, peer physicians, and others
4. Timely access
   Timely access to appointments in the practice
   Advocate for and coordinate timely appointments with other health and medical services required
5. Comprehensive care
   Provide a comprehensive scope of family practice services by working collaboratively with other professionals
   Address public health needs
   Taking population health effects into account
6. Continuity
   Offer continuous care over time and in different settings
   Advocate on the patients’ behalf for continuity of care through- out the health care system
   Preserve constant relationships and continuous medical information for patients
7. Electronic records and health information
   Maintain electronic medical records
8. Education, training, and research
   Serve as a model place for training students, residents, and other health professionals
   Carry out and/or encourage staff to be involved in primary care research
9. Evaluation
   Carry out ongoing evaluation as part of the commitment to continuous quality improvement
10. System support
    Internal support through governance and management structures
    External support by stakeholders, the public, and other medical and health professionals and their organizations across Canada