Allowing more health-care professionals to make the best use of their training will increase access to health care for all Islanders, says Health and Wellness Minister Doug Currie.
“We are moving forward on major initiatives to expand the roles of three types of health providers – nurse practitioners, audiologists and optometrists,” said Minister Currie. “By enabling these highly skilled professionals to take on more responsibility for patient care, we can deliver care faster and more efficiently to even more Islanders.”
The following expanded roles and responsibilities will help health professionals provide better care.
• Nurse practitioners (NPs) are experienced registered nurses with additional masters level education, who collaborate with family physicians to share patient caseload. There are currently four NPs working in primary care settings such as health centres, and three more are being recruited. Health PEI will initiate a pilot project to allow NPs to take on an independent caseload of patients while still collaborating with family physicians. This will reduce the number of Islanders on the Patient Registry and improve access to timely primary care services. The pilot will commence in early 2013 with a single NP in the Charlottetown area.
• Audiologists are trained to perform hearing tests as well as interpret the tests for the referring health professional. Masters prepared audiologists will now be able to bill Medicare directly for hearing tests they perform as a result of a referral – rather than billing the patient – which will improve access to the tests.
• Optometrists will now be able to treat patients without a referral for four types of eye care: screening for eye disease for patients with diabetes; and diagnosis and treatment of dry-eye, itchy eye and painless red-eye diseases. Enabling optometrists to provide this treatment directly will reduce the need for patients to see their family physician or wait in emergency departments and walk-in clinics for non-urgent eye care.
Work has already been done in recent years to ensure health providers are working to their full potential. Pharmacists now have the ability to renew prescriptions when patients are unable to see their doctor, and resident care workers are working in hospitals. Licensed practical nurses help administer medications and conduct health assessments, registered nurses work as advanced-care nurses in primary care, and nurse practitioners have begun to work in long-term care and walk-in clinics.
“The goal of a sustainable health system is to ensure timely access to a skilled health professional appropriate for the patient’s medical needs,” said Dr. Richard Wedge, interim CEO of Health PEI. “Enabling our health professionals to make the best use of their training and expertise will further help us to provide Islanders with the right care, by the right provider, and in the right place.”