Ka Ora Telecare

It was lovely to host Dr Ayesha Verrall yesterday to talk through Ka Ora, our models of care and how we are supporting our rural communities, reflecting back on the past year. Ngā mihi!

It's our first birthday 🎉🥳 It's been a year since Ka Ora began support our rural practices and communities, and we are proud of the work we have done to help. Ka Ora remains available to those living rurally overnight from 5pm to 8am, and 24/7 over weekends and public holidays (this includes Christmas for those of you planning your Christmas breaks!) Head to www.kaora.co.nz to find out more including if you're eligible as you live or are visiting a rural area, and how to book an appointment with one of our team. 🎈

We're incredibly proud that Dr Emma Calvert, Clinical Director of Ka Ora has been announced as a finalist for the HiNZ Clinical Informatics Award for 2024. The winner is up to a public vote, so we'd love for you to head through to the website, check out her nomination and submit a vote! https://ow.ly/TaGC50TURNq The judges comment stated that 'Emma’s work has had a positive impact across the country supporting clinicians and stretched services, but more significantly reaching vulnerable patient groups who may not otherwise have sought, or been able to access, medical care. Her strong relationship building, and operational and strategic input has established a sustainable model that will continue to deliver and improve patient outcomes'. Congratulations Dr Calvert, we're very proud of the work you are doing! Practice Plus Emergency Consult Tū Ora Compass Health New Zealand

Ka Ora is seeking an experienced strategic leader for the role of Board Chair for Ka Ora Telecare. Emergency Consult and Practice Plus work in partnership to provide a service called Ka Ora Telecare, providing telehealth support to rural communities in Aotearoa. Each partner is already delivering telehealth clinical consultations every day, but recognising our different strengths we are convinced that working together, and creating space for other providers to join us, we can create a better solution for rural New Zealanders seeking healthcare access after-hours and when providers are at full capacity. The Board Chair of Ka Ora Telecare will provide strategic leadership to the board, ensuring it functions effectively and achieves its mission of improving healthcare access for rural communities through telehealth services. The Chair will guide the board in governance, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement, ensuring the organisation delivers high-quality telehealth services. The successful director will be required to convene bi-monthly meetings in-person and online. To read more about the role and how to apply, head to https://ow.ly/O6sO50SNMTK

Dr Emma Calvert, our clinical director presenting at GP24 about our service, how we’ve grown, some of the learnings and how we’ve adapted along with how we operate. It’s been great to connect at the conference, and we will have our stall with Practice Plus in the foyer for the rest of the weekend - come and have a kōrero!

Heading to GP24 this weekend? Drop by our and Practice Plus stall and have a kōrero with the team!

Heading to Fieldays? Come and say hi to Clincial Director Dr Emma Calvert and General Manager Jess White to find out more about Ka Ora!

If you're an avid reader of Shepherdess, you'll spot a lovely 'Day in the Life' interview with Nurse Practitioner Emma Dillon. Her feature is in their Winter edition released today, and the team were stoked to get a couple of copies and read Emma's story! Great work ❤️ 📸 Anna Brook - The Farming Imagery

Supporting the Unenrolled Population - Case Study – Wairarapa Practice Plus has been agile as a solution for several districts with unique challenges when it comes to accessing primary health. In Wairarapa, workforce shortage saw many practices close their books to new patients, resulting in a high number of unenrolled patients. The Wairarapa region has a growing number of unenrolled members of the community, currently estimated at 2,500-3,000 people. To improve access to healthcare at a time when Primary Care is at full capacity, Practice Plus has proposed an interim general practice telehealth consultation option, in partnership with Tū Ora Compass Health Wairarapa team, Te Whatu Ora – Wairarapa and Masterton Medical. While patients are waiting for enrolment, they can have a consult with a Practice Plus dedicated clinician, with a specific workflow and funded rates for this service by Te Whatu Ora for a 30-minute appointment due to their delayed care requirements. Some of these are completed by a telehealth assisted appointment alongside a Health Care Assistant or Kaiāwhina. These patients can either complete their telehealth consultation at home, or assisted at Masterton Medical – the consultations can be either be over Video, or Phone, dependent on patient preference. Practice Plus will not enrol these patients but will provide interim care to ease the pressure until practices are able to reopen their books. In a 12 month period over 1,500 un-enrolled patients were seen in the service (some of these being international patients), with 30% of these patients re-presenting to Practice Plus more than once. Read more about this and more in our reflections document at https://ow.ly/Itzt50RkN7s

Meet Emma, a Nurse Practitioner for Ka Ora Telecare based in Western Southland. After a career that took her to Australia and the Coromandel, before returned to her home and worked for Ka Ora. Emma’s career started in 2010 when she graduated from the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology with her Bachelor of Nursing. “I wasn’t an exemplary nursing student and was looking for a different career for the first few years of being a nurse. I thought I’d give nursing one more shot and found a job in rural nursing in the Coromandel Peninsular. I always thought rural nursing would suit me more!” From here, Emma completed her Post Graduate Diploma in rural nursing and went on to a Rural Nurse Specialist role on Rakiura / Stewart Island to complete her Clinical Master's to become a Nurse Practitioner. “There are many challenges we face working and living rurally, including distance to everything from home like the pharmacy, childcare, supermarket, and medical centres, and some of these can also be challenges as we try and help patients during a consult. Some appointments are me frantically putting addresses into Google to find the closest facility they need (pharmacy, lab etc) and checking opening hours, which sometimes is what the patient needs. Patients can be anywhere rurally in New Zealand, often places I won’t be familiar with, but we can create a best/safest/cheapest/most logical action plan for the patient, which often is what they need”. There is absolutely a place for telehealth - and it works so much better than I had imagined it would. You can see in the number of calls that come through on public holidays just how needed it is - and I am pleased to have been able to help keep some of those people in need away from hospital doors during peak busyness. Thanks for your awesome work supporting our communities, Emma!