Continuity of care is something you might have heard us talk about at Cambridge Family Health, as one of the key things we pride ourselves on and strive hard to maintain.
If you have had a serious or chronic condition you many be familiar with the term - but if you haven’t, here’s what we mean by continuity of care:
- An ongoing therapeutic relationship between you and your healthcare provider whereby you see the same GP or GPs for your consultations and through this, build a continuous long-term caring relationship
- A consistent approach to the management of your condition(s)
- Ease of access to a healthcare provider - we also offer an urgent service using our nurses to triage you if you need to be seen on the same day you request an appointment
- Good communication within our Cambridge Family Health team
- Continuity of information shared between your healthcare professionals involved in your care
It can also refer to the quality of your healthcare over time. As a patient, it means you experience a continuous and caring relationship with your primary care team.
Why does continuity of care matter to us at Cambridge Family Health?
It’s been proven that when patients with long-term health issues such as diabetes, asthma, or depression see the same healthcare practitioner at each clinic appointment, not only does it improve efficiencies and standards of care - but importantly for you, it results in a more satisfactory experience as a patient.
This is why we take our patient relationships seriously. Through focusing on continuity of care, we build and foster trust with our patients.
How do we maintain high standards of continuity of care?
- Whilst we have continued to grow in size we have tried to maintain a low patient- to-GP ratio
- Due to this standard, we ensure that you don’t ever have to wait too long to see your preferred doctor
- Although you can always make appointments in advance, typically we ensure that for non-urgent check-ups you can get usually within 24-48 hours.
How you can help us to provide continuity of care
- When you enrol with us please try to ensure your medical records have been sent to us ideally before you first come to see us
- Maintain an up to date list of your medications
- Book a new patient check with our nurses before your first appointment with your doctor
- Update us of any changes to your contact details
- Have any regular or follow up blood tests we may require you to have, for example for diabetes monitoring
- Book in for your smears, skin checks, prostate checks, etc when we send out a recall - this is usually via text.
We trust you always have positive experiences with Cambridge Family Health, and would love to hear any feedback you might have about any of our clinic processes.
Feel free to contact us here, or phone 827 4234.