Updated - May 31, 2011:
For Dr. Monica Susil, working at the City of Lakes Family Health team’s new Lively site is a homecoming.
She grew up in Lively, just a few kilometres away from the clinic’s site on Black Lake Road in the old Town of Walden.
While Susil attended medical school in the Caribbean, she completed her residency in Sudbury through the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in the summer of 2010.
“It’s an honour to be able to come back here and give back to the community that I was raised in,” Susil said, speaking to Northern Life after the clinic’s official opening May 25.
Several local politicians, along with health care leaders and clinic staff, attended the event.
Renovations to the building where the clinic is now located cost $728,000. Half of the cost was covered by the province, and half by the city.
Susil said she’s particularly happy she’ll be working with three friends she made while completing her residency — Dr. Katie Richardson, Dr. Sarah Duncan and Dr. Liisa Lavasseur.
She and Duncan started at the Lively clinic when it first opened in February, and Richardson, joined them a month ago. Lavasseur is currently on maternity leave, but is expected to join the clinic’s staff in the fall.
“We’re new physicians, and there’s challenge in that,” Susil said. “We’re lucky we’re associated with the City of Lakes Family Health Team, and that we have a lot of mentors that are just at the other end of a phone call if we need help.”
The family health team model touts a team-based approach, with family doctors working alongside other types of health professionals. The Lively clinic also employs a nurse practitioner, registered nurse, social worker, dietitian and two pharmacists.
The clinic will care for 6,000 patients once it is fully up and running. It currently cares for about 2,000 patients.
It is open to area residents who don’t currently have a family doctor.
The ribbon was cut on the City of Lakes Family Health Team’s new Lively site on May 25. Pictured, front row, from left, are: Greater Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk, Dr. Katie Richardson, Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci, Dr. Monica Susil, Dr. Chris McKibbon and City of Lakes Family Health Team executive director Dave Courtemanche. Photo by Marg Seregelyi.
Team-based practices seem to be more attractive to young physicians because they allow for a better work-life balance, Dave Courtemanche, the family health team’s executive director, said.
If one of the doctors isn’t available, their work can be covered by one of the other doctors in the practice, or even the nurse practitioner.
“You don’t see physicians graduating anymore that want to put their shingle on the door and open up a fee-for-service practice,” he said. “They want to be part of a collaborative team.”
Those who wish to sign up with the clinic are asked to register with the provincial service Health Care Connect, which helps people find family doctors.
Health Care Connect gives the doctors a “mix” of healthier and sicker patients, so the physicians aren’t overwhelmed, Courtemanche said.
“They understand that it’s not in anyone’s best interest to send all complex care patients to one physician,” he said. “That just wouldn’t be fair to the physician or the patients.”
More information about Health Care Connect is available by visiting health.gov.on.ca and searching for Health Care Connect.
This is the third site opened by the family health team over the last few years. The family health team also has sites operating on Notre Dame Avenue (behind Pioneer Manor) and on Main Street in Val Caron.
Courtemanche said a similar clinic will eventually be set up in the old town hall in Chelmsford. However, doctors need to be recruited to work there first.
“There is no time frame right now for Chelmsford until we have doctors committed to work at the particular location,” he said.
“There’s always physicians we’re in discussions with, particularly young ones that are still in training and trying to plan for the future.”
During the Lively site’s official opening, the clinic’s conference room was named for the late Risto Laamanen.
Laamenen, who owned a local construction company, was a member of the Lively family health team site’s planning committee.
“I’d like to thank everyone who was involved in this very thoughtful and kind gesture,” Laamanen’s son, Kris Laamanen, said.
“Our father was very proud of being involved in such a worthwhile project. I know he’d be particularly proud today to see this site in operation.”
For more information about the City of Lakes Family Health Team, visit yourfamilyhealthteam.com.
Original Story:
The City of Lakes Family Health team officially opened its Lively site May 25.
The clinic, located in the old Town of Walden office on Black Lake Road, will care for 6,000 patients once it is fully up and running. It currently cares for about 2,000 patients.
This is the third site opened by the family health team over the last few years. The family health team also has sites behind Pioneer Manor and in Val Caron.
Four physicians — Dr. Katie Richardson, Dr. Monica Susil. Dr. Sarah Duncan and Dr. Liisa Lavasseur — will work at the clinic, along with a nurse practitioner, registered nurse, social worker, dietitian and two pharmacists.
The physicians working at the Lively family health team site all completed their residency through the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Renovations to the clinic building cost $728,000. Half of that cost was paid for by the province, and half by the city.
Those who wish to sign up with the City of Lakes Family Health Team are asked to register with the provincial service Health Care Connect, which helps people find family doctors, by going to http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/ms/healthcareconnect/public/.
For more on this story, check future editions of Northern Life.
