(Newbury, ON) – On Monday June 8th, 2015, Four Counties Health Services, part of the Middlesex Hospital Alliance, expanded its Outpatient Ambulatory Care services to include a Memory Clinic.
“The introduction of the Memory Clinic is as a result of a recommendation forthcoming from the recent FCHS Visioning Project”, says Steph Ouellet, VP Strategic Partnerships and FCHS Site Director.
The hospital, in collaboration with the Four Counties Family Health Team, will operate the Memory Clinic, initially one day per month with the possibility of expanding to two days per month. Patients are required to be referred to the program by their family physicians.
Jean Ray, Executive Director of the Four Counties Family Health Team (FHT) says, “This is an exciting, new collaborative relationship between the hospital and the FHT, aimed at improving the care for our patients facing memory impairment.”
The overall principles of the memory clinic are:
- To increase capacity and quality of care for patients with memory disorders within primary care,
- To provide proactive, holistic inter-professional care and support of patients and caregivers, aim to reduce ER visits, hospitalization, and premature institutionalization,
- To balance diagnostic accuracy and effective interventions with efficient, sustainable utilization of resources, and
- To reduce referrals to specialists and community resources to only the most necessary.
Todd Stepanuik, MHA President & CEO stated, “This new program is another integral part and shining example of the renewed vision of patient care at FCHS and our commitment to provide care for our patients closer to home.”