“About 90% of my appointments are home visits with patients and their families,” says Heather Foley, a patient case manager in the Chatham-Kent Family Health Team. In this role, Heather often attends healthcare appointments with her patients.
“Developing an action plan involves investigative and detective work,” she explains. “When I attend appointments with patients, I have the opportunity to be an advocate for them in the healthcare system, both in and out of hospital. It’s rewarding, and I never have a day that looks the same.”
As a case manager, Heather works with patients who’ve been in and out of hospital at least three times in a year. Her work is unusual for a pharmacist: typically, case managers are nurses or social workers, but Heather’s prior experience as a hospital pharmacist helps her collaborate with patients and their healthcare team to identify why hospitalizations occur and plan to prevent them.
“The bottom line is that we all need to be involved in transitions of care. Patients move through the healthcare system: they are not just as hospital patient or community patient.”
The Pharmacists Support series is issued by the School of Pharmacy for #PAM2017. It runs every Tuesday and Thursday in March.