A new team-based care grant provides $15 000 to eligible family practices that have onboarded interprofessional team (IPT) members. The grant will help to address the costs of recruiting and onboarding into a practice, and it is just one of the resources provided by the GPSC to help break down barriers and provide supports for practices to implement team-based care.

How does it work?

The grant provides a lump sum payment of $15 000 for each FTE of net new eligible IPT positions filled by the family practice applying for the grant. An eligible IPT position may be filled by a staff member employed by the family practice or another organization, such as a health authority. Eligible family practices may apply for the grant for net new eligible IPT positions filled on or after 1 April 2019. An end date has not yet been established for this grant.

What are the requirements?

A minimum of 0.5 FTE of IPT position is required to apply for this grant. To claim this grant, a group of family doctors must submit an online application form together after an IPT position has been filled. Doctors and clinic owners may agree on how the funding is distributed among the parties.

What does it cover?

These are some examples of what family doctors can do with the grant:

• Cover the cost of setting up and upgrading EMR software and licensing and office hardware to enable interprofessional care.
• Compensate physicians or clinic staff for time spent:
  • Reviewing and implementing changes to office capacity to accommodate new IPT members.
  • Recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new IPT members.
  • Reviewing medicolegal requirements relevant for particular IPT members.

Are you eligible?

To be eligible, family doctors of the group practice applying for the grant must:

• Work within a group practice consisting of two or more physicians that has added an eligible IPT member to the group practice. The physicians working together in a group practice may or may not be co-located and may have an arrangement to jointly fund an IPT position.
• Meet the definition of a community longitudinal family physician as per the GPSC preamble.
• Have completed phase two of the GPSC phases of panel management.
• Commit to participating in quality improvement activities related to team-based care such as services offered through the GPSC Practice Support Program, including team-based care coaches. Quality improvement activities should be aligned with the National Interprofessional Competencies Framework.
• Agree to work collaboratively with the Ministry of Health, the primary care network (if applicable), and other partners toward implementing the attributes of the patient medical home and primary care network.

For more information, visit https://gpscbc.ca/news/news/grant-announced-gpsc-offset-costs-of-recruiting-team-based-care-practices [9].