{"id":640107,"date":"2026-10-08T11:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/640107\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T11:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:24:13","slug":"attached-to-a-team-one-patient-medical-home-will-take-a-new-approach-to-islanders-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/640107\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Attached to a team’: One patient medical home will take a new approach to Islanders’ health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Health P.E.I. is taking an experimental approach to care at UPEI’s patient medical home by affiliating people to an entire team of providers instead of just one doctor or nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n

Officials with the health authority told MLAs on a legislative committee Wednesday that they hope the strategy will help with staff recruitment while also preventing situations where a doctor leaves and their patients end up on the provincial patient registry waiting to be reassigned to a another primary care provider.<\/p>\n

Laurae Kloschinsky, Health P.E.I.’s interim CEO, said instead of being attached to one primary care provider, patients may see a different health professional at each appointment.<\/p>\n

“The key is you’re going to see the most appropriate person for why you’re going and they’re going to all work on a shared record, which means that that conversation and flow-through and continuity will transcend and go across each of the people that you may see,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You’re attached to a team, and so I think the important part is making sure that the team is sized appropriately to support the care for those that are accessing.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Laurae Kloschinsky, Health P.E.I.\u2019s interim CEO, speaks to MLAs on a legislative standing committee Wednesday as Kevin Workentin, department head of family medicine with Health P.E.I., looks on. (Steve Bruce\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Health P.E.I. said UPEI’s patient medical home has affiliated 2,600 people since it opened, 1,250 of whom are connected with a team that started in the summer and fall. <\/p>\n

It said hundreds more have been notified they will soon be affiliated, some to team-based care.<\/p>\n

The health authority said it has hired four nurse practitioners and a new doctor to work at the medical home, with plans to officially launch the team-based affiliation in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Kevin Workentin, department head of family medicine with Health P.E.I., said the pilot could improve both patient access and caregiver satisfaction.<\/p>\n

He said he thinks Islanders will adjust to the possibility of not seeing the same health-care professional at every visit, describing the team-based approach as “a welcome mat.”<\/p>\n

“That’s the reason for the experimentation \u2026 at UPEI patient medical home is to create a place that I think the initial thought for patient medical homes was intended,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Health care’s still being provided, it’s being done so in so many excellent ways by so many caring and conscientious people.\u2026 Let’s see if this can improve things a little bit.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Health P.E.I. officials say they hope the team-based approach will prevent situations where a doctor leaves and their patients end up on the provincial registry, which currently has the names of more than 31,000 Islanders who are waiting to be assigned to a primary care provider. (Steve Bruce\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Over the last few years, Health P.E.I. has moved toward a team-based approach to primary care, including opening 19 patient medical homes across the Island.<\/p>\n

But patients at those homes remain tied to a single primary care provider \u2014 and if that provider leaves or retires, there is a chance patients would have to join the provincial patient registry along with more than 31,000 other Islanders.<\/p>\n

The hope is this approach will help keep people off that waitlist.<\/p>\n

The team-based trial is currently only taking place at the UPEI patient medical home. Other clinics won’t have to use the approach, but Health P.E.I. expects it to catch on elsewhere.<\/p>\n

“In the situation where one [primary care provider] may leave for a period of time, our hope is that the team will be able to sort of distribute that care across the board because, ultimately, the whole team is able to provide care,” Kloschinsky said.<\/p>\n

“We think that that’s going to be a huge opportunity for recruitment, we think it’s going to be a huge opportunity for retention and it’s going to be [a] huge opportunity to continue to learn and evolve and best support how we provide care on P.E.I.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-640107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}