The two winning teams from Medicine Hat and Brooks. Supplied Photos

By Adrian St.Onge

Clinics in Medicine Hat and Brooks split quality improvement award

Jun 14, 2024 | 4:12 PM

The Palliser Primary Care Network honoured two southeastern Alberta clinics Friday with the Quality Improvement Award, split between two clinics for the first time ever.

The seniors-focused Medicine Hat’s Cameron Medical Clinic and the Brooks Medical Clinic shared the award.

Dr. Tobi Owolabi, a physician with the Brooks Medical Clinic, said he hopes that the community finds value in the work they’re doing.

“Well we hope that the community sees at a lot of the hard work done by community clinics. We’re focusing more on the team care right now,” Dr. Owolabi said.

“It’s not just the doctor. You’ve got the fantastic team here, the moa who attends to them, the nurses who see them. Sometimes it doesn’t matter who they see. I just want the community to know that we try to channel them to see the appropriate care for them.”

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Palliser Primary Care Network executive director Treena Klassen said that the award is important as it gives small, rural clinics not only the recognition they deserve, but also the ability to discuss what might be working for them.

Klassen said that medical experts from across the world come to help with training and lending perspective, something she says has helped local clinics immensely.

“We bring in faculty, international faculty, and they teach some information and provide their expertise,” Klassen said.

“The biggest learning that happens is that the clinic when teams go back to their offices and they assess, within their unique practice, what could, what should we improve, what’s within our area and resources that we could improve it.”

Klassen said that some of the challenges facing clinics are wait times and says clinics should see a significant increase in efficiency if the UCP health care changes come to fruition later this year.