Member Services & Engagement
Our PCN’s membership consists of family doctors located within our catchment area. These members are the foundation of our PCN and the focus of the MSE team.
MSE keeps members informed of and involved with our PCN and the programs and services that support them and their patients.
Highlights from 2023-24
Our MSE team provides…
Enhancing engagement
As they are the foundation of our PCN, we worked throughout 2023-24 to improve our stakeholder engagement with the doctors in our membership.
We scaled up existing efforts with a new role — Physician Engagement Consultant — focused on designing and implementing qualitative data collection methods to gather member feedback on topics relating to our PCN’s business plan priorities and program areas. We also undertook a separate, broader research initiative on doctors’ interests and needs.
In 2023-24, the MSE team led engagement efforts with doctors (both our members and non-members for broader context) through:
- Interviews and meetings
- Working groups and a focus group
- Surveys
Our Physician Liaisons — the primary contacts for our members — continued to answer day-to-day questions, collect feedback as it arose, and meet with doctors and clinics. They also started quarterly virtual drop-in meetings where doctors could attend if available.
Consultation topics
Instances where doctors shared feedback through consultations, interviews, and focus or working groups
Developing new programs
Broad stakeholder engagement played a vital role in the development of two new programs — our Dietitian Program and Physiotherapy Program — throughout 2023-24.
To engage the doctors in our membership, we:
- Surveyed all members to collect their input on what areas were most in need of support
- Conducted individual interviews with 15 members for the Dietitian Program and 14 members for the Physiotherapy Program to gain deeper insight from doctors about the need and their expectations
- Engaged three members in a Dietitian Program working group and three members in a Physiotherapy Program working group to provide input on program development
Beyond our membership, we consulted with:
- The members of the public who volunteer on our Patient Advisory Council
- Representatives from our clinical teams
- The Alberta Healthy Living Program, Health Link’s Dietitian Service, AHS Primary Care, and the Diabetes, Obesity and Nutrition Strategic Clinical Network (for our Dietitian Program)
- The Bone Joint Health Strategic Clinical Network, members of the Alberta Association of Physiotherapy, AHS’s Rehabilitation Advice Line, and AHS Community Physiotherapy (for our Physiotherapy Program)
Thank you to everyone who participated. While we did not launch our new programs in fiscal 2023-24, the consultations, interviews, and working groups were vital to their creation.
Events and professional development for members
Our PCN’s continuing medical education and professional development program supports the doctors in our membership with free educational opportunities in four priority areas — practice support; community services, transitions, and integration; Patient’s Medical Home; and primary care partnerships — so they can run effective and compliant practices.
We also make many of these opportunities available to doctors with other PCNs in the Calgary area.
Education opportunities
Webinar and course attendees
Making meaningful content for the public
Bill Gates wrote Content is King almost three decades ago, but our PCN is still focused on creating content that is tailored to the interests of our public audience.
In 2023-24, we asked our subscribers what topics interested them and gathered feedback from our Patient Advisory Council. Throughout the fiscal year, we created posts, articles, and monthly series on these topics that featured the expertise of the doctors in our membership and our own team members.
And people responded, growing our audiences across all our social media accounts and e-newsletter for the public:
- Facebook followers up 117 per cent
- Instagram followers up 31 per cent growth
- LinkedIn followers up 24 per cent
Our aim is always to educate — and, where appropriate, entertain — our audience with information that offers value and raises awareness of our programs and services and what is available from partners in the healthcare community.
increase in Community Health Connect e-newsletter subscribers (subscribe today)