Primary Care Rep.
As a primary care rep for SCOPE, my role is to provide support and help to primary care physicians in connecting their patients to the available hospital-based imaging.
Jaydeep Halankar
Primary Care Rep., Activity Lead
About
Seamless Care Optimizing the Patient Experience (SCOPE)
The SCOPE project was designed in 2012 as a resource for family doctors practicing in the core of downtown Toronto.
Those physicians often faced challenges accessing certain clinical services and updates on their patients’ journey in the hospital setting post-referral, which affected the patients’ quality of care and led to unnecessary ER visits.
The goal of SCOPE was to provide resources to help care for patients with multiple chronic conditions. Due to an increased demand from family physicians for access to hospital-based medical imaging and navigational support, in 2014, the Joint Department of Medical Imaging, Women’s College Hospital, and Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions & Virtual Care collaboratively designed the 1-800 Imaging Pilot. The project provided the community primary care physicians with access to a JDMI radiologist who was available from 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday to answer their queries about the appropriateness of imaging tests for their patients and to arrange urgent imaging at Women’s College Hospital.
Following the success of the 1-800 Imaging Pilot, JDMI has fully operationalized the Medical Imaging Call Centre (MICC) by providing access to all primary care physicians.
Meet the Radiologist
Meet-the-Radiologist initiative was an enthusiastic drive that started at Women’s College Hospital several years ago. The goal was to give patients an opportunity to meet with a radiologist and review their imaging. Once the patient’s exam was completed, the technologist would ask them if they would like to see a radiologist to ask any questions and/or review their imaging. The radiologist would then (at the earliest possible time) meet the patient and bring them into a designated room to review the imaging.
Patients often were very appreciative, and some were impressed to not only get their results the same day right after their imaging but very pleased that they got to review and ask questions and address their concerns with a radiologist. Currently this service is offered two days a week, and we have seen a lot of benefit from this for our patients, referring physicians, and our radiologists who now have a chance to interact with the patients directly.