May 2022 Newsletter

May Newsletter Highlights

Expanded Eligibility for 5th Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine

Online Appointment Booking (OAB) Funding

OAB solutions are designed to reduce the administrative workload around appointment bookings, by enabling patients to electronically book appointments with their family doctors and nurse practitioners and receive automated confirmations and reminders
The Ministry of Health has approved 1-year of funding to help family practices adopt OAB (this funding includes licensing costs and a stipend for change management activities)
Benefits of OAB include:
- Option for patients to book/reschedule/cancel appointments at any time of day
- Decreased no-show rates through automated reminders
- Improved efficiency and reduction in administrative burden
- Increased staff satisfaction
Apply here for funding to 1) adopt a new OAB solution, or 2) cover licensing costs for a currently used OAB solution

Long Term Care (LTC) Forum - May 26th

Join us on Thursday, May 26, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. to discuss support for LTC Homes during COVID-19 with EasT-FPN, MGH, and LTC Facilities in East Toronto.
Receive the latest clinical and practice recommendations and COVID-19 updates in LTC facilities, and connect with MGH resources and Toronto Public Health.
Email contact@eastfpn.org to receive a link to the forum.

Thank You to Dr. Tia Pham!

East Toronto Family Practice would like to extend a very public and gigantic THANK YOU to Dr. Tia Pham, one of our inaugural founding board members. Dr. Tia Pham was the architect behind the open forums, newsletters, mask fit testing, COVID peadiatric, and adult assessment centres, PCCRT (initially called MOM's Mobile Outreach Medics), home bound vaccination drives, and landed our first AZ vaccinations delivered by family practice! Her infinite wisdom, energy, and ability to advocate for all of us here in East Toronto will be greatly missed.
Please extend your well wishes to Tia as she starts her new chapter in Beautiful British Columbia. We will miss you Tia and look forward to hearing how you transform primary care on Vancouver Island.

Specialist Resources

Dr. Safieddine and his partners at the Division of Thoracic Surgery at MGH continue to provide expert and prompt care. Placing a referral can also be made via Ocean to the MGH Diagnostic Assessment Unit - Thoracics, patients are usually seen within 7-10 days.
- Care includes benign and malignant issues, and comprehensive palliative thoracic surgical care with a minimally invasive approach whenever possible
- Can send oncology cases before staging as the team will take on the responsibility and can organize prompt and timely access to testing
- Please see Dr. Safieddine's letter here for more details on how the thoracic team can help make care more seamless in East Toronto.
- Stay connected for more information on an upcoming Thoracic Surgery educational event.
SCOPE hosted a successful Orthopedic CME on May 5th, 2022 to review and discuss the management of commonly seen fractures in primary care and review the SCOPE fracture pathway.
- A special thank you to Dr. Justues Chang for a very informative and applicable presentation.
- If you would like to register for SCOPE, you can do so here and get rapid access to GIM, DI, our Nurse navigator, and more!
- Stay tuned for an upcoming SCOPE CME in June with Diagnostic Imaging Department.
- Email SCOPE@tehn.ca with any feedback/suggestions for new services needed

Primary Care Tools for Identifying High-Risk Patients Eligible for Paxlovid

Practical challenges with Paxlovid include prescribing with potential drug interactions, identifying appropriate high-risk patients, and communicating with those individuals.
Ontario Health has collaborated with partners such as OntarioMD and the eHealth Centre of Excellence to develop and mobilize additional Paxlovid tools. To learn more, click here.

Practice Supports and Patient Resources

Want to have easy and secure communication with the hospital and community care providers? Visit the EasT-FPN website for more information on Hypercare.
Ocean eReferral continues to expand in East Toronto – if you are interested in using Ocean eReferral, please contact the eServices Team: eReferral@ehealthce.ca.

Become an EasT-FPN member to receive clinical and practice support, and opportunities to engage with the East Toronto community. Please fill out the Membership application form to become a member.
- As part of the membership onboarding, members are encouraged to complete the following EasT-FPN Membership Intake Form, to provide us with key practice information, which will inform the EasT-FPN program and service planning.