Calgary medical clinic reduces waitlist with team-based care

A Calgary medical clinic is working to tackle the shortage of family physicians by empowering other healthcare providers to play key roles in patient care. The Rainbow Project is a team of publicly funded health providers caring for patients who don’t have a family doctor. The team includes RNs, a health navigator, a physician assistant and a family physician. Since its launch in Jan., the Rainbow Project took on nearly 300 patients who were without a primary-care provider. The team hopes to expand to 1,000 patients by the end of the year and ultimately ramp up to 2,000 next year. There are also plans to include other care providers such as pharmacists, mental health specialists and physiotherapists.