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New home for Primary Care Network

A bigger and better headquarters will allow the St. Albert and Sturgeon Primary Care Network to see more patients. Officials unveiled the new facility on Thursday.

A bigger and better headquarters will allow the St. Albert and Sturgeon Primary Care Network to see more patients.

Officials unveiled the new facility on Thursday. Located just west of Grandin mall, the clinic is three times the size of the old location adjacent to the Sturgeon Community Hospital.

“The best part is that we are now able to provide more group sessions for patients, said general manager Debbie Wilson-Makinen. The network offers several sessions for issues like smoking, diet, anxiety and diabetes.

The Primary Care Network (PCN) first opened in St. Albert in 2006. Any family doctor can belong to the network, which employs medical professionals such as nurses, dietitians, pharmacists and mental health co-ordinators. The intent is to provide member doctors with an easy referral resource for patients needing additional services.

In April, the network’s 52 member doctors accepted 235 new patients, a sign the clinic is helping to alleviate doctors’ workloads, Wilson-Makinen said.

“We now have a sense that there are new patients that are being accepted within primary care networks,” she said.

At the office of Dr. Wayne Daviduck, who is the network’s president, patients have been able to get an appointment faster since he started working with the PCN nurse, from an average of 31 days to just six, said his assistant Angela Anderton.

The clinic handled nearly 4,500 referrals last year but Daviduck knows public awareness is still low.

“If you walked up to Joe Public and asked him what’s a PCN about, you’d probably get a blank look,” Daviduck said.

“I think there’s still several years to go before it’s infiltrated the communities enough where people will say … I want to be part of the PCN so that I can maximize my care.”

The PCN had been located in the annex building attached to the Sturgeon Community Hospital. The new location provides a central location with good parking and bus access. Daviduck feels it also helps increase awareness.

“It used to be people thought we were affiliated with the hospital. Now they realize we’re a stand-alone entity,” he said.

Alberta has 32 primary care networks, with another seven in the planning stages. They are a partnership between Alberta Health and Wellness, Alberta Health Services and the Alberta Medical Association.

A challenge while setting up the model was figuring out how to adequately pay doctors, who are subject to a “whites of their eyes” model, meaning they are paid for treating a patient only if they see them in person, said Doug Horner, MLA for Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert. To access care from the PCN, patients must first see their doctor and get a referral.

“The government of Alberta sees this as the wave of the future,” Horner said. “I think it’s just a wonderful concept, truly supportive of it.”

More information about the network is available at: www.stalbertsturgeonpcn.com/

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