Oaktree Family Medical Centre

As a regional and rural medical practice servicing a mining town of 10,000 people, Oaktree Family Medical Centre needed a reliable clinical and practice management solution. The key to its success is a system that offers valuable health information to patients to better support health outcomes.

Background

Queensland-based Oaktree Family Medical Centre is a general practice offering a wide range of health services to Moranbah locals and its regional communities. From women’s health and occupational health services, to specialist services such as skin cancer treatment, the practice strives to provide high quality comprehensive service to the local community.

Dr Margaret Swenson bought the practice in 2016. Since then, it has tripled in size, treating around 150 patients a day.

“We have a staff base of 20, including 6 GPs, occupational health and safety screeners, visiting Specialists and practice staff," Dr Swenson said. "We’ve also just opened up an allied health centre.”

The Challenge

For Dr Swenson, a key challenge is determining whether a patient understands their condition and how to best manage their treatment.

“I’ve always given my patients health fact sheets and handouts, because it adds value to their experience," she explained. "We know from studies that by the time a patient leaves a GP’s room, they forget 60% of what they just heard.”

Since 2016, Oaktree Family Medical Centre has used both Clinical and Pracsoft by MedicalDirector as their practice management solutions. MedicalDirector’s partner solution, Healthshare Fact Sheets, gives the practice access to 6,500 product fact sheets, which doctors can easily share with patients.

"The fact sheets are a powerful way to give patients more information about their condition and how to manage it. And because we’re environmentally friendly, we don’t have to worry about printing it. We quickly share the fact sheet electronically with patients via email. We know they retain the information more than paper versions, which often get lost.”

The Solution

Since using Healthshare Fact Sheets in MedicalDirector’s Clinical software, Dr Swenson has discovered significant benefits to the wider health community that the practice hadn’t anticipated.

“One interesting trend we found was that patients would pass information about certain genetic diseases and auto-immune disorders onto their families," Dr Swenson said. "Their family members who had previously been reluctant to visit their GP, read the fact sheet and realised they might be suffering from the same condition. So that one fact sheet had a wider reach and impacted more patient health outcomes.”

In addition to Healthshare Fact Sheets, Healthshare Referrals is also integrated into MedicalDirector’s platform and enables effective referrals, especially for patients who go home to other parts of the country for more specialist treatment.

"Our patients often need family support. They could be anywhere in Australia. Healthshare Referrals makes it easy for me to search for specialists where the patient wants to be treated. Through the Referrals tool, I can find the specialist nearest to a patient’s home, and I can also see the specialist’s specialty, sub-specialties, hospital affiliations, languages spoken, ability to take on urgent appointments, and gap scheme participation. The tool helps me save time and also helps give my patients the guidance they need at the time of referral.”

“I would recommend Healthshare, integrated with MedicalDirector software, because not only will your patients be empowered with the right education to better understand their condition, but they can share it with their family and support group," Dr Swenson added. "I integrate the fact sheets and referrals directory in my daily practice and just do it instinctively, because I know that I’m not just helping the patient sitting in front of me, but also reaching the wider health community.”