New health centre to improve patient tracking

A family doctor in western P.E.I. says opening a new health clinic will allow him to keep better track of the health of his patients.

Dr. Gil Grimes used to work at the O'Leary Health Centre. He and another family practitioner, Dr. Katherine Burleigh, will open the West Prince Family Health Clinic next week.

All patient information at the new clinic will be stored electronically. Grimes said this will allow him to more easily keep tabs on how he and his patients are doing, something he used to do when practicing in Texas.

"It … lets me look at my panel and say 'OK, for all my diabetics, how good a job am I doing? Am I really meeting my goals? Am I doing the things I think I'm doing?'" he said.

"When I'm seeing folks in the clinic I feel like I'm doing a good job, but I've also thought like I've had plenty of money in my bank account and I've been wrong there. So being able to go back and look at things in that respect is going to be important for us."

Grimes said, as an example, he would be able to search the database for all his patients who have diabetes but only come to see him once a year.

"That's a group of people I need to focus a lot of my extra attention on," he said.

Grimes said patients will not notice a big change in the day-to-day operations. Prescriptions and orders for tests will still be on paper.

The West Prince Family Medical Clinic opens next Monday.