Family Health Team

A Family Health Team is an approach to primary health care that brings together different health care providers to co-ordinate the highest possible quality of care.Designed to give doctors support from other complementary professionals, Family Health Teams (FHTs) are health care organizations that include a team of family physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, social workers, dietitians, and other professionals who work together to provide health care for their community. FHTs provide more service and a wide range of health options, especially for people who don’t have a doctor.

Family Health Teams ensure that people receive the care they need in their communities, as each team is set-up based on local health and community needs. They focus on chronic disease management, disease prevention and health promotion, and work with other health care organizations, such as public health units and Community Care Access Centres.

Currently, there are over 200 Health Teams in Ontario improving access to health care for more than 2.7 million Ontarians.

Family Health Teams and Family Health Organizations:

Let’s break this down a little bit more.

Family Health Teams encompass the larger number of health care workers who help to serve the physicians working under the Family Health Organization Model. The goal of this structure is to be patient centred while also allocating more funds to physicians practicing primary comprehensive and preventative care and allowing them more flexibility in the ways in which they administer care.

Under the Family Health Team:

• Family doctors will continue to see their patients during regular office hours.
• Patients will have access to other health care professionals within that Family Health Team, such as nurse practitioners, nurses, dieticians and pharmacists.
• Doctors may refer patients to these other health care professionals without penalty to both best serve the patients’ needs and to allow the doctor more time with higher risk patients.
• Patients will have access to a Family Health Team doctor during extended evening and weekend hours for urgent problems.
• If patients see another doctor in you Family Health Team for treatment, the patient’s own doctor will receive documentation about the nature of your problem so that he or she will always be up-to date about your medical condition.
• If a patient need assistance after-hours, they will be able to telephone the Family Health Team Telephone Health Advisory Service where a registered nurse will provide advice about your urgent health care concerns and provide the patients physician with an encounter report, so that the patient’s doctor is informed of the nature of the problem and the advice you received.
• Family Health Teams will be able to take advantage of specially funded information technology to organize patients’ health information and share it securely with other health professionals.