Primary Care MedRec Guide

Aboriginal Health Access Centres

Total # = 10

Aboriginal Health Access Centres (AHACs) are Aboriginal community-led, primary healthcare organizations. They provide a combination of traditional healing, primary care, cultural programs, health promotion programs, community development initiatives, and social support services to First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.

Community Health Centres

Total # = 75

Community Health Centres (CHCs) deliver primary care services in health promotion and community development programs. CHCs focus on keeping people - and the communities where they live - in good health. If health problems are caused by social and environmental issues, health teams work with community members and develop programs to reduce them.

Family Health Teams

Total # = 185

Family Health Teams (FHTs) provide primary healthcare services in a team approach which brings together your family physician with other healthcare providers in order to provide to you the best possible care. The focus is on keeping you and your family healthy, not just treating you when you are sick.

Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics

Total # = 24

Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics (NPLCs) are primary healthcare models in which Nurse Practitioners work collaboratively with an interprofessional team, including a consulting physician, to provide comprehensive, accessible, and coordinated family healthcare services to people who formerly did not have access to a primary care provider (i.e. unattached patients).

Rapid Response Nurses

Rapid Response Nurses (RRN) act as a bridge to support vulnerable patients with high care needs. Nurses connect with patients within the first 24 hours after the patient is discharged home from the hospital, ensuring the patient is connected to a physician or nurse practitioner and has an appointment within the next seven days.

Rapid Response Nurses help patients:

• understand their illness and symptoms
• understand their hospital discharge plan
• understand how to take prescribed medications
• arrange for follow-up medical appointments or tests
• connect with their primary care providers, ensuring everyone has necessary information about each step of the patients' journey
• receive appropriate home supports as quickly as possible so that they have everything they need to stay at home safely.

Telehomecare Program

Telehomecare (THC) is a patient self-management program that engages patients as partners in their care plan - right in their home. Telehomecare nurses teach, coach and remotely monitor a patient's health status through the use of technology. The patient's primary care provider is kept informed with ongoing updates. It's a new way to manage chronic disease and a catalyst for changing how healthcare is delivered. The goal is to inspire individuals to manage their own health at home. Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Heart Failure (HF) and associated comorbidities are eligible for project enrollment.

Solo Family Doctor Practices

Family physicians practicing without the support of other healthcare providers.

Community Pharmacists

Community pharmacists are medication management experts. They collaborate with patients, their families and other healthcare providers to benefit patients. In addition to traditional dispensing, and patient counseling activities, pharmacists deliver a range of services, including medication reviews, chronic disease management, immunization services and wellness programs.

MedsCheck program

The MedsCheck program is a one-on-one interview between the community pharmacist and the patient to review the patient's prescription and nonprescription medications. The MedsCheck medication review will encourage patients to better understand their medication therapy and help to ensure their medications are taken as prescribed and that patients are getting the most benefit from their medications. MedsCheck should be available to all eligible patients in any community pharmacy in Ontario.