Dr. Shawn Smit, Idylwyld Medical Centre, Saskatoon

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 driving change in family medicine in Saskatchewan. Featured is Dr. Shawn Smit and the team at the Idylwyld Medical Centre in Saskatoon.

For Dr. Shawn Smit, the motivation behind Idylwyld Medical Centre’s Innovation Fund project is simple: patients deserve easier access to care, and physicians should be able to spend more time doing what they do best.

Chronic disease takes up a considerable proportion of our physician appointments and the chronic disease templates include questions about lifestyle. Physicians want to be able to do more than give patients a handout about exercise/mental health.

Our project begins the first step in creating a multidisciplinary team to serve the patient population through a physician-led, team-based care model. It would provide better, more accessible patient experience, allowing the clinic to provide connected, comprehensive care.

Located in Saskatoon’s downtown core, Idylwyld Medical Centre serves a diverse patient population, including many patients living with chronic disease, mental health challenges, and barriers created by social determinants of health. The clinic’s physicians recognized that many patients required support that could be provided more effectively by other members of a health care team.

Idylwyld Medical Centre’s  Innovation Fund project focuses on creating a team-based model of care through the addition of a registered nurse and social worker who can help patients access services, coordinate care and connect with community resources. The goal is to improve access while freeing up physician time for more complex medical issues.

Connecting patients with the appropriate resources and support remains a challenge. The current system does not efficiently integrate non-physician health care providers, such as registered nurses  and social workers, who could help alleviate these access issues and optimize care delivery.

Our project adds a social worker and RN working at the top of their scope performing tasks otherwise done by physicians. This involves acting as a patient navigator, directing patients to services that often do not need a physician referral.

The project reflects Dr. Smit’s desire to implement organizational change and innovative approaches to primary care. Multidisciplinary team-based care will improve outcomes for patients while reducing pressures on providers.

This project seeks to improve health care access, enhance care coordination, and optimize physician efficiency, leading to better patient outcomes and provider wellbeing.