Dr. Karissa Brabant, Circle Medical Centre, Moose Jaw

The $10-million Innovation Fund was negotiated as a key component of the 2022-26 agreement. Twenty‑eight medical clinics across Saskatchewan have received support from the Innovation Fund to better meet the needs of their patients and communities. These projects are helping clinics add team members, improve care, and build stronger, physician-led, team‑based care.

The Saskatchewan Medical Association is profiling individual physicians whose Innovation Fund project ideas are leading change in family medicine in Saskatchewan. Featured is Dr. Karissa Brabant of the Circle Medical Centre in Moose Jaw.

Dr. Karissa Brabant says the Innovation Fund has been transformative for herself and her clinic – Circle Medical Centre in Moose Jaw.

“I have reached a point where I cannot go back to how I worked before the Innovation Fund and development of the Patient’s Medical Home model of care in our clinic. Having team‑based care located on site has improved my patients’ care while reducing my own burdens. I no longer feel alone, and I no longer feel like the pressure is on me to be perfect.”

“The Innovation Fund allows a clinic to recognize what it needs to improve. Imagine if every family physician in Saskatchewan had access to the resources they needed to address what is holding them back. That’s what the Innovation Fund provides.”

Welcome space for patients

Dr. Brabant envisions Circle Medical Centre as a welcoming space for patients seeking culturally safe care. With its Medicine Wheel logo prominently displayed, the clinic was designed to be a signal for the community — particularly for Indigenous people — that the clinic would be able to serve them. But limited staffing and insufficient resources have made it difficult for the clinic to fulfil that vision, said Dr. Brabant.

“We have had to say ‘no’ to many patients seeking family medicine care, including people of Indigenous heritage, which is anathema to the initial purpose of the clinic. The primary goal of our Innovation Fund project is to be able to say ‘yes’ to more patients.”

The clinic’s Innovation Fund project centres on improving patient access by recruiting allied health professionals who can deliver top‑of‑scope, team‑based care. By expanding the care team and strengthening their use of the electronic medical record, the clinic aims to better track patient needs and monitor improvements over time.

“We see the lack of access in primary care and how that is negatively affecting people’s health and wellbeing. We also realized that complexity of care means patients need more time and should not be rushed in their visits. The focus of our project is to increase access by hiring not only primary care providers, but allied health team members as well.”

‘Perfect example’ of PMH

Under the Innovation Fund, the clinic has recruited a nurse practitioner and a pharmacist, contracted a counsellor and psychologist, added front office staff and hopes to contract a social worker.

“Our project is a perfect example of the beginnings of the Patient’s Medical Home model. The foundations of that model include administration and funding, which the Innovation Fund provides. It also includes the appropriate infrastructure, which we have, and connected care, which we are growing in our team-based model.”

“We demonstrate in our project how team-based care with family physician leadership can work. Through the Innovation Fund we also have access to training in quality improvement, so we can continue to find areas we can improve in as a clinic.”