Inpatient/Family Practice Ward

The family practice teaching service has been a unique feature at St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH) over the past three decades.  The ward allows community General Practitioners to admit and care for their patients in conjunction with service and teaching to St Paul’s based Family Practice Residents.

The ward is located on 8A where we have 10 designated beds.  However, due to demand for our services we usually have 12-13 patients dispersed throughout the hospital and often admit up to 16 patients.

Our ethos is the “BioPsychoSocial approach” to patient illness experience and management.  We support and teach Family Practice residents to develop the management skills to care for sub-acute inpatients with complex medical and social situations; as such, we work cohesively within a strong multidisciplinary team to provide the best care for the patient.

WHO ADMITS TO THE FAMILY PRACTICE WARD?

Any General Practitioner with Active or Provisional category privileges and wishes to admit patients are placed on the list of GPs who admit.  This list contains physician contact information (see sidebar for link to list). Once a physician is on the list, Emergency will refer appropriate patients.  The patients are then seen by the Family Practice Resident (see Ward Call schedule below for contact information) who will review all care decisions with the admitting physician or the “Doctor of the Week.”

Who is the “doctor of the week”?

Unattached patients requiring sub-acute care can be admitted the service by ER consultation.  The patients are seen by the Family Practice resident who will review all care decisions with the admitting physician aka. “Doctor of the Week.”  The Doctor of the week is a community general practitioner with an interest in inpatient hospital management and resident teaching.  They work along side the residents and multidisciplinary team to care for the patients on the service.

What patients do we care for?

As mentioned above, we care for patients whose family doctor admits to the hospital but also unattached patients with sub-acute illnesses.   The patients are cared for 24/7 with an after hour “home-call” resident that reviews and manages issues with the doctor of the week on call.  The “typical” patient’s illnesses on the service range from poorly controlled skin/bone or other soft tissue infections to heart failure, rehabilitation, and substance use disorders etc. 

We often care for complex patients with multiple comorbidities on our service; as such, our biopsychosocial approach with strong community integration and multidiscipanary approach serves our patients well in and out of hospital.

Ward Information

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Contacts

Pierre-Paul Lizotte, Lead Physician,  SPH Family Practice Ward
Email: PLizotte2@providencehealth.bc.ca
Tel: 604-682-2344
Location: 201-1190 Hornby Street Rm 213

Melanie Catacutan, Administrative Secretary
E-mail: mcatacutan@providencehealth.bc.ca
Tel: 604-806-8444
Fax: 604-806-8556
Location: 1190 Hornby Street, 2nd Floor, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2K5

Last updated Fri, Aug 19, 2016