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Practice Management Program
Primary Care Networks Program Management Office
Toward Optimized Practice
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Opioid Process Improvements

Tackling the opioid crisis in Alberta will require new approaches and an immediate response of the entire health system to change its trajectory. The engagement and response of primary care physicians, teams, and Primary Care Networks (PCNs) will be essential in defining new primary health care approaches to address the crisis and the systemic issues that contribute to the crisis.

This course was designed to help physicians and team members implement practice changes that improve care for patients who use opioids. It will take approximately 4-hours to complete the course. The course can be completed all at once or it can be completed section by section and you can refer back to this course as often as needed. It has been specifically designed for primary care physicians, clinical team members, and practice facilitators in Alberta. This self-learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Alberta Chapter for up to 4 Mainpro+ credits.

Course Modules

The main modules of course include

  • opioid terminology reviews the opioid-specific language and acronyms used throughout the course that may be unfamiliar to some
  • engaging primary care focuses on sharing some of the data about the opioid crisis and outlining how primary care teams can be part of the solution which aligns with the implementation of the Patient’s Medical Home
  • introduction to the opioid change package describes the concept of a change package, what its purpose is, and how to use it within a primary care setting
  • an overview of the evidence and potentially better practices for each of the high impact changes:
    • improve the patient experience
    • identify paneled patients for care improvements
    • standardize documentation
    • optimize care management and prescribing
    • coordinating care in the medical home & health neighbourhood

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to...

  • Describe the impact that primary care can have on the opioid crisis in Alberta. 
  • Explain how opioid process improvements support the implementation of the Patient’s Medical Home.
  • Support a clinical team to implement the potentially better practices within the opioid care processes change package.