Amity was one of the first Health Care Homes in the Otago-Southland region. We wanted to explain what this means as a patient as we gradually make some changes in the model of care.
Watch this brief video clip to hear what it may mean for you as a patient at Amity.
We will still be offering you high quality, accessible appointments with your own GP.
The philosophy of Health Care Homes is that the patient is at the centre of everything we do. We will be making changes to improve your access to appointments when you need them, but also offering more advice and pre-planning outside of GP appointments, so that you get the most out of your visits to Amity. - click here Amity News to read about the opportunities available
If you call us first thing in the morning with an urgent health problem we will be able to offer you more options for care. We will have a GP available to speak with you if needed, so that the best possible plan can be made. This might include an urgent appointment, getting some blood tests done before an appointment later that day, or having the problem dealt with without needing to come in.
More than half of our eligible patients are now enrolled with MMH, a “patient portal” that offers you much greater involvement in your own health care. Your health care record has always been owned by you, but soon you will be able to see it. Currently patients enrolled with MMH can make appointments online, look at their own results, see recalls coming up and email all the members of the health care team. In the future we will be moving to open access notes, where you can see much more of the information in your file.
We want to make sure at every visit that you are seeing the person who is most able to provide you with the care you need. This may be the GP or Practice Nurse or another member of the health care team. We will be working towards greater integration with services that have previously only been available in the hospital eg specialist diabetes or asthma nurses.
Some of you have already taken advantage of our new early morning and lunchtime appointments. We will also be working towards extended hours some days of the week to make it easier for patients who work to get to see us.
We’re expanding our services so that you can receive some urgent care (such as intravenous antibiotics) from us, and avoid any unnecessary trips to the ED.
Many of our patients have ongoing health conditions, and we want to make it easier to plan and manage your own health care so that you can maintain a high quality of life. We’ll work with you to set goals around your health and wellbeing, and work with you on a regular basis to achieve these goals.
When you do need to go to hospital or after hours, they will be able to see some of your health information, allowing them to provide better, more personalised care to you.