6 minute read
Clinic care
Health professionals guide through the pandemic
STORY & PHOTOS BY BRITTON LEDINGHAM
Airdrie Medical Clinic (AMC) has adapted quickly since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The local group of health professionals have led thousands of patients through unease and disease over the last year. When asked the general status of her patients, Dr. Mindy Gautama, one of the dozen doctors on staff at the clinic, gives a sympathetic answer.
“If I had to just use one word to describe them, I would say struggling,” says the family doctor of 20 years in Airdrie. “I think it’s for any number of factors. It’s not just their medical status. It’s just all the economic fallout. It’s the isolation. It’s ... that uncertainty and anxiety as to what’s going to happen in the future.”
She shares that a lot of her patients have lost their jobs or are finding it hard to keep their businesses afloat.
“Of course, that’s going to have an impact on your health, both physical and mental,” says Gautama, noting an increase in addiction, alcohol and drug use, people eating for comfort, plus less activity.
She’s painfully familiar with the direct and indirect problems of COVID, and shares concern about an upcoming care deficit, as some regular illnesses have gone under treated.
“This is possibly one of the most difficult times that any of us will ever go through in our lives,” says Gautama.
She and her colleagues Dr. Neil Rehill and medical office assistant Miranda Schmidt are thankful for the support of their peers during this hard time.
Gautama highlights the “invaluable” assistance the clinic receives from the Highland Primary Care Network (PCN), including support from a social worker, registered nurses, a kinesiologist, an exercise specialist, a dietitian and a pharmacist.
AMC colleague Dr. Tammy McKnight, who recently joined WestJet as chief medical officer, agrees.
McKnight was also previously the local PCN medical director. With about 65 doctors, PCN looks after about 75,000 patients from the Calgary border to Didsbury, east to Beiseker and west to Cremona.
She says she had about 20-25 COVID patients up to the end of January in her part-time family practice (which supported approximately 900 patients within AMC). All recovered but two active cases at that time.
McKnight says the clinic has been adapting and learning since
the start of the pandemic. At first, knowledge was changing almost daily, and staff have worked to stay on top of the best advice to give their patients in a confusing time. She says regular webinars with public health and infectious disease leaders help staff “stay more cutting edge” with facts condensed from research papers from trusted sources.
She’s also thankful for her colleague Dr. Ahmar Khan’s background in virology.
“It provides some comfort when you have somebody who has some expertise that you trust to be able to give you some answers,” McKnight, acknowledging the peer support provided within AMC’s daily huddle, which she refers to as a “five-minute mental health appointment before the day starts.”
For Miranda Schmidt, life has looked different from her peers in their early 20s. She started her medical office assistant career in June 2020 at AMC, where she had worked summers for three years prior.
“Probably the most stressful part of the whole pandemic is just a thought of bringing it here and giving it to a patient,” says Schmidt, who has taken measures to keep others safe.
Going virtual
Virtual care was far from routine before it became the norm in the early months of the pandemic. Before COVID-19, doctors were allotted seven virtual patient visits per week.
Gautama says knowing many of her patients for 20 years helps her read their cues when talking over the phone, but it has its difficulties. Visuals are aided by sending pictures through secure links. The clinic will make video calls a part of their practice soon and are switching electronic medical record systems to accommodate the service with security.
McKnight says the increase of secure platforms to “enhance the way that care is provided” is one good thing that’s come out of the pandemic.
“Instead of having to take a couple hours off work to come to their doctor, they can take 15 minutes off, which is great for patients,” says McKnight, acknowledging the limitations of virtual care for mental health patients to really “see how they’re interacting.”
Gautama agrees.
“It’s trying to find that balance of managing patients, making sure that all of their other health care needs are met, but also recognizing that COVID does kind of cast this cloud over everything,” she says.
About 30 of her patients had dealt with COVID by late January. At that time, all of them had recovered, but Guatama did have some patients with lingering effects.
Patients with COVID have been cared for over the phone, following pathways depending on their risk factors. High-risk patients with COVID are called every day for two weeks to check on them and go through a series of questions. If something is wrong, they can be sent to hospital. Average or low-risk patients are phoned every other day or once, respectively.
How to move forward
Along with his family practice, Rehill works with the Luxstone Manor assisted living facility and does the occasional shift at Urgent Care in Airdrie.
He hasn’t seen much of his senior patients, who live minutes from his Calgary home, in the last year.
“We’re protecting them because of the high-risk group,” he says. “It’s really the elderly, the sick, that we have to think about during times like this. And the fact is that it’s healthy subjects that are passing it on to the vulnerable.”
He shares concern for youth fractured from their normal social lives and wonders how it will affect them long term. But overall, he takes an optimistic view.
“I do know that ... humans are resilient,” says Rehill. “I’m hoping ... when we look down the road, we can say, ‘We worked together. There were a lot of sacrifices, yes. Loved ones passed away, loved ones got sick, but we managed.’
“I think people bounce back, and I think so will we, hopefully with some important lessons learned.”
Rehill says respect for others is most important now.
“Be kind to one another ... we need some positivity to keep us moving forward,” he says. “And I do think that, you know, we’re going to come out of this better.”
McKnight says the biggest challenge now is convincing
people vaccines are safe.
“Vaccination is [going] to be the key for this to be over; for us to be able to go back to our lives as they were before,” she says. “So far, the two mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines have been found to be very effective and been found to be very safe. When you look into the paths, the technology has been around for more than a decade, so it’s actually not that new.”
McKnight encourages people to vaccinate to protect themselves and those around them to decrease “the amount of propagation of the virus in the community.”
Gautama encourages the public to also get “back down to basics” of health: eating healthy, staying active, getting enough sleep and limiting alcohol intake, as well as maintaining connection with family and friends by video or phone calls.
She leads by example, making a point of reaching out to one of her close friends weekly.
Schmidt encourages patients to keep accessing their family doctors.
“It’s important not to let other aspects of your health slip while you’re trying to be careful and protective,” she says. “There are ways to access health care, even if you don’t want to be in person.” life
