Capital Health is working with Dalhousie University on interprofessional education from early stages of medical training. This includes nursing, physiotherapy, pharmacy, and other programs to familiarize students with collaborative models of care. Capital Health trains family practice residents and engages over 1,000 family practitioners. They have developed community health teams and seen reductions in emergency department visits through partnerships with paramedics. The leader hopes their legacy will be facilitating appropriate and effective care for patients and promoting healthy lifestyles to improve population health.

1. In Conversation with Chris Power Ken Tremblay Patient-Centred Care
Capital Health; they truly were representing the community leap years ahead. For anyone new to the community, there’s
and feeding information to our board of directors. We have a number they can call for a match with a family physician –
10 years of experience now, and our success was because we about 98% of our citizens have family physicians. Family physi-
supported them well. Initially, we had a coordinator/director for cians are a difficult group to engage because their solo or group
each community health board to help understand their needs practices are not as connected to the district as we might want.
from a population health perspective. We changed our model as But we’re seeing improvement each time we ask about their level
our community health boards matured, but they remain invalu- of connectedness. We are working hard to make them feel part
able. They keep their finger on the pulse of the community they of Capital Health.
represent and understand what [factors] impact on the health
of that community. They work together developing plans that HQ: How are students and faculty – medical, nursing,
come to our board on an annual basis to inform our strategies allied health – at Capital Health touched by the new
and our goals for the following year. paradigms shaping healthcare and delivery systems:
The people serving on these community health boards are very chronic disease management, system integration,
dedicated to improving their neighbourhoods and communi- collaborative practice, population health?
ties. It has been a wonderful model but one that requires invest- CP: We are the main centre for Dalhousie University. Over
ment and strong links with the district. I wouldn’t say that they 5,000 students come through our doors on an annual basis,
are all equally successful around the province. There are varying and that includes medical students and residents. They receive
degrees of success, but, on balance, my colleagues in Nova Scotia an orientation from us so that they understand what we’re about
would say they provide tremendous benefits. and our expectations of them when they are in our midst. We
are working with Dalhousie on inter-professional education: Enhancing Quality and Safety
HQ: Most healthcare leaders are engaging the starting in the very early days of medical school, nursing, physio-
primary care system through the lens of population
health to reduce the burden of chronic diseases.
therapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy and all the various
health professions. We’re working in a collaborative fashion Standards for Older People
What have been your success stories, and what so that graduates are familiar with that model. We are trying
issues remain as a leadership challenge?
CP: We have great stories but many challenges on the primary
to refresh the curriculum with our colleagues at Dalhousie to
better reflect the needs of the public and patient population. in Canadian Hospitals:
healthcare front. We have a Department of Primary Care and a We’re doing tremendous work with Dalhousie University, but
Department of Family Practice here at Capital Health. We train
family practice residents, but the Department of Family Practice
students from around the world are gaining experience with us.
The best we can hope for is that we are transmitting to them A National Collaboration
also engages over 1,000 family practitioners throughout Capital what’s important about the transformational journey we’re on.
Health. We’ve been tremendously successful in engaging our
Belinda Parke, Barbara Liu, Angela Juby and Craig Jamieson
family practitioners: listening to them and determining what HQ: What do you hope will be your leadership legacy
they need and how we can connect with them better. We have at Capital Health?
developed community health teams out in the community, CP: I hope my legacy will be about the engagement and the
including our nursing homes, where, working with paramedics, dialogue around appropriateness of care. We are going down Abstract Motivation for Quality Standards for Older
we have seen a remarkable reduction in patients coming to our that path at Capital Health. We started this dialogue a few years In this article, the authors present quality and safety stand- People in Hospital
emergency departments. ago during these strategic conversations with our public. I’m ards for older people in hospital, derived from a national An aging population, demographic and utilization trends,
hopeful that [the approach] gets legs and starts to take off so dialogue involving inter-professional experts, key stake- patient safety issues, best practice evidence and economic
that we are helping people receive the care that’s appropriate holders and opinion leaders. They report the consensus pressures in the healthcare system are imperatives that signal
“ e are working with Dalhousie on inter-
W and effective. That would be one. process and present the standard statements with corre- the need for improvements in hospital services for older people.
professional education: starting in the The other is healthy eating [and lifestyle]. If I can contribute sponding operational definitions, along with relevant Provincial governments and health authorities struggle on
very early days of medical school, nursing, to making an impact on the health of Canadians – getting clinical topics. This work can serve as a platform for service a day-to-day basis with these complicated issues. National
physiotherapy, occupational therapy, people to watch what they eat and what they do with their feet, planners, evaluators and policy makers who are endeav- debates over growing costs in a period of financial restraint
to improve their health – then I will consider all my time in ouring to ensure that older people receive quality care and where efficiency is highly valued add another dimension to the
pharmacy and all the various health
healthcare well spent. service when admitted to a Canadian hospital. complexity (Mittmann et al. 2008; Ratcliffe et al. 2010).
professions.” People are living longer than previous generations, making
We present quality and safety standards for older people in older adults the core business of hospitals in Canada. The year
We are a good way down the path of having primary care hospital that arose from a three-phase project that included 2011 was marked by the first baby boomers reaching age 65;
physicians feel that they’re part of the Capital Health family, HQ: Thank you. representatives from a broad base of key stakeholder groups. by 2031 all Canadian baby boomers will be age 65 (Canadian
and we are rolling out primary healthcare [models] throughout The three-phase project is outlined in Appendix A (available at Institute for Health Information 2011a). Statistics Canada
our district. Compared to where we were five years ago, we are http://www.longwoods.com/content/23238). reports that the fastest-growing segment of the population
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