The Patient Centered Care Project seeks to alleviate the administrative burden on physicians while fostering more focused, personalized care for patients and empowering them to take an active role in their health care journeys. This is achieved through a multifaceted approach, supported by a collaborative multidisciplinary team, outlined below.

Aspects of the Project

Office Redesign

The current way that many medical offices are setup have physicians or health care providers and patients on opposing sides of a desk, where patients are unable to see their medical records or diagnostic results. We have removed this physical barrier that contributes to inequitable power dynamics and instead sit together with patients at a round table to foster a collaborative approach. This design also intentionally invites family members or other patient advocates to be a part of the meeting and a part of the decision-making process in the patients’ health care path. Instead of a physician sitting behind a computer looking privately at the medical records, the patients results and medical history will be projected on a wall in the office so that all members of the health care team, including the patient and their advocates, can see during relevant parts of the appointment. A medical office assistant will also be present, taking notes that the patient will be able to take with them at the end of the appointment to ensure they feel well informed about all aspects of the appointment. The medical office assistant will also writeup any requisitions or referrals during the meeting to ensure timely care to the patient.

Human and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scribes

Many patients and physicians are dissatisfied with their use in patient appointments, finding that electronic health record’s divide physicians’ attention between the computer and the patient. Using an artificial intelligence (AI) scribe physicians will be able to give patients their full attention, allowing them to provide higher quality care. Having a medical office assistant monitor the AI scribe will minimize distractions and ensure that all records are accurate and complete. Together, this will work to meet the project’s goal of reducing administrative burden, while improving patient centered care.

Project Scope

Currently, the Patient Centered Care Project is underway at Dr. Laurie Main’s internist clinic in Salmon Arm. Over the next year, we aim to expand the project to other specialist clinics in Salmon Arm and across the Interior Health region to deliver high quality, patient centered care in our communities. Following the successful uptake in these clinics, we envision this project being adopted in clinics across British Columbia and, ideally, Canada.