Clinic Information for Health Professionals

Map to the Clinic

GENERAL PHILOSOPHY

The mission of SFHC is "to prepare outstanding family doctors, create and disseminate knowledge, and advance and integrate the principles and values of Family Medicine". For over 30 years Stonechurch has embraced the concept of primary health care, which encompasses a full range of service and care, from health promotion and disease prevention to curative, rehabilitative, and supportive/palliative care.

Stonechurch Family Health Centre is one of the three family practice units in the Department of Family Medicine and McMaster University.

It is comprised of three health care teams.

Clinical care services beyond office-based care, include care to a multicultural mix of patients as well as care to patients who are residents of Participation House (a residential home for physically disabled adults), the Rygiel Home (a home for severely mentally and physically disabled adults), nursing homes, as well as St. Martin's Manor (a group home for pregnant adolescent women and their newborn infants).

Programs and Services

Programs and services currently available to patients of SFHC are: Smoking Cessation Counselling, a Chaplain, and a Lactation Consultant. You can also click here for more information.

Our patients

SFHC provides care for patients from a broad spectrum of socioeconomic groups; however, most of our patients tend to come form middle class or lower middle class homes in the mountain and eastern sections of the city. The age and sex distribution of registered patients is typical of the provincial average for a community family practice.

    * Over 47, 000 patient encounters per year
    * 14,716 patients registered with the Centre, increasing monthly
    * Pediatric population approximately 17%
    * Geriatric population approximately 9.5%
    * Full time residents in the family medicine block have approximately 160 patient encounters per month
    * Part time residents in other blocks have approximately 25 patient encounters per month

RESIDENTS

In common with the other family practice units at McMaster, Stonechurch emphasizes a community-oriented approach in the delivery of primary health care. The emphasis of this Centre is on educating the family medicine resident for the health care systems of today and tomorrow.

Each resident is assigned a physician supervisor who acts as a clinical supervisor, advisor and mentor to the resident. Family physicians and nurses, as well as social workers, a psychiatrist, a lactation consultant, and a chaplain are available to supervise and act as resources to residents.

Residents are assigned a panel of approximately 250 patients when they first come to the Centre. Every effort is made to ensure that the resident follows their designated patients for purposes of continuity of care. One of the faculty members at the Centre supervises intra-partum obstetrics.

There are usually 25 to 30 residents based at the Centre, making an on-call rotation of approximately one night in every 7-10 days. Residents take first call on nights and weekends, and are backed up by a faculty member. The call schedule for residents is drawn up by the chief resident.

Educational Rounds:

Some of the resident educational rounds:

At SFHC

On-call Rounds, Team meetings, Chart Audit Rounds, Psychiatric Consult and Didactic Rounds, Resident Presentation Rounds, Resident meetings, Dermatology Consult and Didactic Rounds, Behavioural Science Tutorials, Problem-Based Small Group Learning (based on community model for CME credits), Pregnancy Care Rounds, various topics and guest speakers.

Off-site

Hamilton Health Sciences Corp. Family Medicine Rounds, Academic Half Day, Evidence-Based Medicine, St. Joseph's Hospital Low Risk OBS Rounds and Family Medicine Rounds.

Faculty Special Interests

For special interests, residents may participate in programs targeted to specific needs.

Women's Health Issues     Sexuality
Loss and Grief     Doctor-Patient Relationships
Geriatrics     Circumcision
Immunization Techniques     Medical Informatics
Smoking Cessation     Health Promotion
Parenting Issues     Critical Appraisal
Contraception, including diaphragm & IUD's     Pregnancy
Palliative Care     Stress Management

PERSONNEL

    * 7 faculty physicians and 5 community/part time faculty physicians
    * 6 nurses (3 nurse practitioners, 1 registered nurse, 2 RPN)
    * A consultant psychiatrist (1/2 day per week)
    * 3 social workers
    * A dietitian
    * A pharmacist
    * A chaplain
    * A lactation consultant
    * Clerical and service staff (receptionists, team assistants, secretaries, billing coordinator)

From time-to-time other learners from nursing, midwifery, and social work; high school and Mohawk College Co-op Students; McMaster McWork and Work-study students work here.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE

Investigative and Theraputic Resources On-site

    * CML Lab
    * Treatment Room for minor surgical procedures/eg. IUD, suturing, and circumcision
    * Spirometer and peak-flow meters, Glucometers, Obstetrical Doppler, Liquid Nitrogen for skin lesions, Hyfrecator for cautery

Educational Resources

    * audiovisual setups for monitoring patient encounters for learning purposes
    * family interview room
    * community room for rounds, meetings, with audiovisual capability
    * all of the computers at SFHC are capable of accessing patient records as well as accessing resources on the Internet.

PRIMARY CARE REFORM

In September 2000, the staff physicians of SFHC and McMaster Family Practice Unit combined to form the McMaster Primary Care Network (PCN). Primary Care Reform is a pilot project of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) to provide patients with continuity of care, services of other health professionals, and eventually to link patient medical information electronically.

By becoming a Primary Care Network, the physicians are compensated for providing some health promotion and preventative care to patients, and for upgrading their patient informatics systems. As well, patients of our PCN have the option of phoning the ON-Call Healthline nurse triage service for after-hours medical advice, as a compliment to the oncall service.

OSCAR

OSCAR (Open Source Clinical Application Resource) is an open source web-based electronic patient record system for delivery of evidence resources at the point of care. The software was developed by the Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

For more information visit the website: www.oscarmcmaster.org

PATIENT STUDIES

Rehabilitation in Primary Care

Primary health care is changing across Canada. The impetus for the change is that people should receive the care that they need at the first point of access to the healthcare system. Rehabilitation has been identified as one type of service that should be offered in primary care to address the needs of adults who have, or are at risk of, poor health from chronic conditions such as arthritis, heart disease and depression.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether persons with a chronic illness, receiving care in a primary care setting, show improved health as a result of rehabilitation compared with adults in the primary care setting who do not receive rehabilitation. A secondary objective is to identify if rehabilitation services can help to reduce hospital admissions and emergency room visits. All participants receive a comprehensive assessment in their homes.

Three therapists (two physiotherapists and one occupational therapist) offer rehabilitation to 150 adults with chronic illness over an 18 month period. One hundred and fifty people are enrolled in a control group at the Stonechurch Family Health Centre. The rehabilitation includes a comprehensive assessment and intervention.

For more information visit the website: www.iamable.ca