Offering Patients a Medical Home - Not a Hallway - and a Stronger Health System.

This article examines three family health teams (FHTs) in different Ontario communities that exemplify the features of a Patient's Medical Home (PMH), a vision developed by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. With PMH supports and foundations in place, these FHTs deliver high-quality care enabled by strong PMH functions: accessible, comprehensive, patient- and family-centred continuous care that is responsive to a community's unique needs. Adhering to PMH principles not only improves patient experience, health outcomes and provider satisfaction but also leads to fewer unnecessary hospital admissions and emergency room visits - system savings and better use of public resources.

How Collaborative Mentoring Networks Are Building Capacity in Primary Care.

The need for increased capacity in primary care to treat the growing numbers of patients with complex chronic health conditions is well established (Roberts et al. 2015). Meeting that need requires not only more family physicians but also more support and resources to handle challenging cases. The Collaborative Mentoring Networks (CMNs), created in 2001 by the Ontario College of Family Physicians and funded by the Ontario government, have provided that support and proven particularly successful in improving physicians' competence and confidence in caring for patients struggling with mental health, addictions and chronic pain. The networks give family physicians timely, ongoing access to mentors with greater clinical expertise. In 2017, the networks expanded from two to seven, spreading support to palliative and end-of-life care and medical assistance in dying and focusing on leadership in primary care, early years in practice and rural medicine. CMNs' early impact involved increased primary care capacity in family practice, better-supported family physicians treating more patients with complex conditions, fewer specialist referrals, less isolation and greater retention.