Family Team Care: Turning The Key

Our Family Team Care solution requires at least one assistant, generally a RN or LPN (or a capable MA) who is dependable, flexible and trainable. He or she must also be someone the doctor can work with closely. Training two or three such assistants is even more effective.

Each assistant needs his or her own copy of the manual, "Liberating the Family Physician," for both study and writing notes. In addition, it is absolutely necessary for the trainee(s) to view Disc #2 of the DVD set in its entirety. After the assistant has read pages 2 - 15 in the manual and watched the training portion of the DVD a couple times, the physician should review with the assistant pages 10-15 in the manual.

The assistant(s) then spend 2-5 days observing the physician taking competent histories and documenting the information. Also during this time a reading of pages 16 - 232 in the manual is necessary. With this material and properly-executed training, a capable assistant should now be able to effectively gather 90-100% of the information the physician needs.

In the beginning regular meetings - preferably weekly - are critical to the success of Family Team Care. In these meetings, it is essential that the symptoms and disease processes in "Liberating the Family Physician" be reviewed by the physician and his/her assistants. Regular meetings provide opportunities to answer questions, review medical problems, streamline the process, improve the care given and, of course, to foster the assistant-physician relationship.