Creating Opportunities for Group Medical Visits by BC Video Group

Video produced by www.impactbc.ca

One way to make the most of your capacity and give patients the care they need is to use the group visit. There are many characteristics associated with the group visit that make them worth a serious consideration in any health center.

This video was brought to our attention by the team from Maxine Hall Health Center in San Francisco (thank you!) and was produced by This video was brought to our attention by the team from Maxine Hall Health Center in San Francisco and produced by Impact BC (www.impactbc.ca) based in Vancouver, Canada for the British Columbia Ministry of Health Services and British Columbia Medical Association.

Group visits have a lot of supporters, including patients, staff and providers. They are described as empowering and facilitate learning, give patients the ability to ask questions, allow patients and staff to share knowledge and experience (and can be very supportive as a result), and provide patients with information to support effective self-management when designed and executed well. They are also an excellent way to make the most of your capacity and give patients the care they need.

The three types of groups visits described and shown in the video include:

1. the Cooperative Health Care Clinic (CHCC) which is a regularly scheduled group visit with the same group of patients with the same condition. It is typically scheduled for a specific number of visits.

2. the Drop-In Group Medical Appointment (DIGMA) which is a regularly scheduled appointment open to different patients with different conditions where individual patient issues are discussed within the group context

3. The Shared Medical Appointment (SMA) which is a group visit for individual patients with the same condition. In the video they show a pre-natal group visit.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• primary care
• community health center
• group visits
• chronic disease
• PCDC