The Ministry of Health and Long-term Care defines Community Health Centres as "non-profit organizations that provide primary health and health promotion programs for individuals, families and communities. A health centre is established and governed by a community-elected board of directors.
The Top 5 Benefits of Community Health Centres
1. Expert health care provided by a
salaried team of health professionals.
2. Cost-effectiveness by emphasizing multiple levels of care, and by
offering prevention, early intervention and health promotion programs
tailored to community needs.
3. Located in rural or disadvantaged areas and providing services close to
home. 4. Health and Social Service needs are often met together.
5. A volunteer Board of Directors Accountable to the community.
In late 2004, the Ministry of Health approved funding for two satellite sites in Beachburg and Cobden, together known as the Whitewater Bromley Community Health Centre (WBCHC) Satellites and for a point of access site in Killaloe (Rainbow Valley) to be managed through the Lanark Health and Community Services organization. Executive Director, Financial and HR support is provided from the Lanark site with programming operations managed locally by the Program Director. Both sites have local advisory boards and representation is maintained on the Lanark board by the chair of the Satellite committee which is composed of members of both WBCHC and Rainbow Valley advisory boards and the Program Director. WBCHC hopes to become a stand alone CHC’s as soon as possible.
Who do we Serve?
All of our services are for people who live in the Whitewater Bromley catchment area. Exceptions were made for existing clients of the former medical practices.
We provide health care just like any other family physician to a large number of clients who have registered at our centre for their medical care. We are different than most physician offices, because we work in a multi-disciplinary team and therefore we can offer more services. We also believe that we are more cost - effective in delivering our services because our nurse practitioners and nurses do many things that a physician in other places might do, such as shared care, seeing their own clients, assessing clients, giving injections etc.
Please note: due to College medical directive guidelines, we only provide flu shots for our own clients. Your regular doctor and the public health unit both offer flu shots for non-clients.
Our Team
In addition to the Program Director, we have physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, a social worker, a health promoter, an office administrator and receptionists on our team.
What is a Nurse Practitioner?
Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses with additional training who provide effective care to clients of all ages. They see individuals and provide health promotion program and services to groups.
Nurse Practitioner skills include the ability to: provide wellness care including health screening activities such as Pap smears, monitoring infant growth and development, diagnosing and treating minor illnesses such as ear and bladder infections, diagnosing and treating minor injuries such as sprains and lacerations, screening for the presence of chronic diseases such as Diabetes, monitor people with stable chronic disease, such as hypertension.
Nursing Services
You can book an appointment to see the nurse who does things like allergy injections, immunizations, ear syringing, blood pressure checks etc and they provide limited laboratory services and foot care services for our own clients. The nurse will usually be the first person you see when you come to the urgent care clinic as she makes decisions about who the physician should see first or she does things to assist the physician such as take a temperature or a urine sample.
Laboratory Services
Please Note: Effective September 2006 the Laboratory Services will be limited to those clients who receive their medical care from the centre. Due to limited resources we are unable to provide laboratory services to clients of other physicians. We will be happy to make an exception if you have disabilities or if you don’t have transportation to get out of town to other Laboratory Clinics. Note as well, that our nurses are not trained laboratory technicians and therefore they are not able to do all of the tests that a practitioner might order.
Foot Care Services
Although we do provide nursing foot care services to clients of our centre, we are currently not funded to do this. Because of limited resources and high demand, we will only be able to provide foot care for non-clients to those who have Diabetes and to those who live on a limited income such as ODSP and Old Age security. VON will provide foot care for those with the ability to pay for this service.
What we do for the Community?
Provide an urgent care walk-in on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday from 2-4 pm. Presently, Urgent Care Walk-in is available only at the Cobden Site. We will send a note regarding your visit to your regular family doctor.
We regret that we can not fill prescriptions and do non-urgent things that your regular doctor should be doing.
Offer appointments with our social worker who provides support, helps you get information, helps with referrals, and assists with forms
Offer educational groups open to anyone in the community - i.e. Mindfulness Training, Stop Smoking Groups, and Parenting Groups etc.
Offer Community Programs - i.e. Adult Fitness Programs, Good Neighbour Program, Youth Program
Provide space for other community programs and services - i.e. Bonnechere Manor Day Away Program, Prenatal classes, Davidson Hearing Clinics
Advocate for a healthier community by identifying your health needs, developing new health promotion programs, sitting on committees, writing letters of support for health initiatives etc.
Can you become a Client of our Centre?
The Cobden site is still taking a limited number of new clients each week. We have a waiting list and you can put your name on it to become a client. You may have to wait a few months to get a new client appointment.