A new initiative involving pharmacists, nurses and doctors called “Focuscare”
What is focuscare?
focuscare is a collaborative approach to health care. At our pharmacy, a focuscare community nurse provides a variety of services and information and works with an individual’s pharmacist and doctor to provide an integrated approach to a person’s health care needs.
Why a focuscare community nurse program?
From 1996 to 2006, Vancouver has seen a 13.5% increase in population, an increase which draws upon the limited health resources available to the public at the primary care level.2 In order to enable everyone in the community to achieve the highest possible levels of health within or external to a chronic disease paradigm, community-based health services should be utilized. It is essential that these services contribute to a collaborative and integrated program which brings medical professionals together to promote individual health care. The World Health Organization acknowledges that people’s lifestyles and the conditions in which they live and work strongly influence their health.3 Cognizance of these factors in developing social and community programs will help people feel valued and supported in more areas of their lives. However, all too often the primary doctor may be overburdened to coordinate the patient’s complex home care, wound care, psychosocial needs, disease tracking and in-depth follow-up sessions.1 If the patient feels that there is a lack of recognition of his/her individual and unique perspective in a hurried office environment, patient frustration and stress result in ineffective patient education and reduced information retention.1
The patient is often left to navigate the complexity of his/her care or disease management without knowing how to access resources or complementary health professional services. Therefore, there must be continuity from one locus of care to another in order to avoid fragmentation of services1. Collaboration between a person’s pharmacist, doctor and a community-based nurse allows for coordination of care and integration of services within a clinical setting. The community-based services offered by Macdonald’s Prescriptions #3 pharmacy provides a “patient’s review”1 which empowers the patient to participate in his/her own care while receiving health education and point of care testing, which includes spirometry, blood sugar monitoring and blood pressure monitoring. What is unique about this program is that it seeks to alleviate the disparity between the body of knowledge available to the patient through health education and the amount of information actually being delivered to and received by the patient in modern day clinical settings.
A new concept that the patient assume some burden of responsibility for his/her own health care in a nurturing and supportive community-based clinical environment is an emerging discourse and at the heart of focuscare. Disease prevention stands out among the nucleus of potential interventions that combine good health outcomes with good economic value.4 Together with the patient’s physician, health promotion and disease prevention can open the door to the sustained future of health care.
References
1. Delbanco, T.L. and Gerteis (October, 2008). A patient-centered view of the clinician-patient relationship. Retrieved from www.uptodate.com
2. Vancouver Coastal Health Population Health Team and Steering Committee (February, 2008). Reducing Health Disparities in Vancouver Coastal Health Communities: Population health Priorities.
3. Wilkinson, R and Marmot, M. (Ed.) (2003). Social Determinants of Health: the solid facts (2nd ed.). Denmark: World Health Organization.
4. Woolf, S.H. (February, 2009). A Closer Look at the Economic Argument for Disease Prevention. Journal of American Medical Association, 301 (5), 536 – 538.