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LHSC Celebrates Family Medicine

When life’s journey includes health emergencies and acute illness, London Health Sciences Centre provides acute care services aimed at helping patients to get back on course.

Yet LHSC also plays a broader role, supporting patients on their voyage throughout life.

Family doctors at LHSC’s Byron Family Medical Centre and Victoria Family Medical Centre, and LHSC’s Family Medicine/Palliative Care Units, provide a full continuum of care.

The family medical centres are core teaching sites supported by interdisciplinary teams of doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and social workers.

Dr. Tom Freeman, Chief of the Department of Family Medicine for London’s hospitals, sees LHSC as a forerunner in this regard. “In a way, we have been three decades ahead of the wave in regard to the newly emerging family health team concept that the ministry is now funding and we’re fortunate to have the support from administration required to provide this comprehensive care.”

Janice McCallum, Director of Acute Medical Care and Community Transition at LHSC, agrees. “Our Family Medical Centres have been visionary in offering patient centred and interdisciplinary care.”

Family doctors with hospital privileges are able to admit their patients when necessary into the family medicine/palliative care beds at University Hospital and Victoria Hospital.

“This allows the family doctor to oversee diagnostics and receive consultation when required,” Dr. Freeman says. “It uses the hospital bed more appropriately and in turn keeps the patient out of the Emergency Department.”

Freeman says there is great benefit for patients when their doctor has admitting privileges to the Family Medicine Unit. “When their doctor knows them, and their history, the care they receive is consistent and comprehensive.”

Doctors with privileges appreciate the knowledge gained by working in a hospital environment.

The learning, according to Janice McCallum, goes both ways.

“There’s a lot to be learned by the hospital staff as well, as they witness acute care through the eyes of the family doctor,” she says.

Patients without a doctor also benefit from LHSC’s commitment to family medicine. Those admitted through the Emergency Department who require additional care can receive it from doctors serving on rotation in the Family Medicine Unit. “We can take some of that overflow and look after those patients and make sure they are stable before they go home,” says Dr. Freeman.

In addition, says Janice McCallum, "The family physicians make a tremendous contribution to the Obstetrics Program at Victoria Hospital, caring for expectant mothers who do not have a family doctor through regular prenatal care clinics. Often, the same doctor that has last seen the patient prior to the birth will be the one on call the following week, with a high chance of being the one to deliver as well.”

This comprehensive care extends into the area of chronic disease management. “As our population ages and is living longer, there is a higher incidence of chronic disease, such as diabetes, arthritis, congestive heart failure and cardiopulmonary disease,” notes Janice McCallum. “It has always been the approach in Family Medicine to help the patient learn to self-manage their disease through the help of our multidisciplinary teams.”

A recent survey of family physicians in Southwestern Ontario showed they often stay in their community because of the relationships they develop with their patients.

For Dr. Freeman, “that relationship is everything and one of the many unique rewards you experience when you practice Family Medicine.”