Key Success Factors
and Pitfalls
Continuity & Comprehensiveness of Care
Primary Care Toolkit for Family Physicians
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
Factors to Ensure Success
Factors that ensure success in continuity and comprehensiveness of care must recognize what has led to a decline in the recruitment and retention of "full service " family physicians as well as the gaps in primary healthcare, the field of chronic disease management being an excellent example. Success is interpreted as the provision of primary care systems that satisfy the needs of both patients and their providers. What is needed is a "home " for all: one in which patients feel confident and secure and in which providers feel valued and supported. In particular, this "home " must attract new family medicine graduates and satisfy the needs of young family physicians whose accepted workloads and practice patterns are changing. It is equally clear that in order to provide continuity and comprehensiveness of care, models must be designed with provider incentives that ensure patient-centered care. In many settings, this will mean the development of cooperative group practices, defined to ensure comprehensive service. Patients will continue to evaluate the provision of their primary care in accordance with the appropriateness of the services provided.
It is suggested that the following factors are among those that will ensure success for family physicians in primary care: