The Aspen Primary Care Network (PCN) — a collaborative team of 20 physicians and other professionals serving Westlock, Boyle and Athabasca — is establishing a new “health home” in Westlock,.
The new healthcare site will be located in the Pembina Medical Clinic on 107 Street and will offer family physicians and a variety of specialists all under one roof.
Aspen PCN executive director Luke Brimmage said the ‘health home’ aims to fill the gaps in services in the community and works towards providing services and developing healthcare programs.
Brimmage said the primary health care model is something the provincial government is pushing and the Aspen PCN health home in Westlock will be one of the first in Alberta.
“We’re one of the first communities, us and Athabasca, to be able to offer these ‘health homes,’” he said. “We’re making good on it probably earlier than most.”
In comparison to the conventional healthcare model, under the primary care model, medical professionals work more closely together and can easily refer patients to specialists.
“We’re able to consolidate our community services and health professionals into one location and currently we’re kind of segregated with those services,” he said. “It’s one location that’s central in the community and we’ll have all of our health professionals working in that one centre.”
Brimmage explained a patient is able to not only see their doctor and necessary specialists at the same place, but all during the same appointment.
“A person could be coming there to see their chronic disease nurse and find out that maybe they need to talk to a social worker or the kinesiologist and everything can happen within that one appointment in that one spot,” Brimmage said. “That’s a big positive for the community and for the PCN.”
The Aspen PCN clinic will host an open house on Oct. 7 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. for residents to see the facility and learn about what services can be offered.
“It’s the first time that we’ve taken some time to put a face to ourselves in the community and we’re really working towards being more a part of the community and have them really understand and recognize what we’re doing,” Brimmage said.
