Year 1: 2005/2006
Enriched Health Care started providing Exercise Physiology for patients under Medicare and NSW WorkCover. We very quickly established ourselves as the outcome focused provider of Exercise Physiology on the Mid North Coast of NSW.
Year 2: 2006/2007
Enriched Health Care employed the super capable Naomi Lyons to help with coordinating health care services.
Enriched Health Care actively promoted Exercise Physiology to GPs and community groups. Very few people knew what Exercise Physiologists did. As we educated the community our team grew quickly to a team of 3 Exercise Physiologists plus coordination.
Our very first employed Exercise Physiologist Krystle Tate worked tireless for three years with the team and her patient feedback was always extraordinarily wonderful. I was immensely proud of how she grew as an AEP.
Those early years involved exhaustive amounts of persistence and belief in our unique models of care.
Year 3: 2007/2008
Enriched Health Care had strategically grown, ticking off our goals we were now providing Accredited Exercise Physiology services in Taree, Port Macquarie, Kempsey and Coffs Harbour. Enriched Health Care built our first clinic in Kempsey alongside the highly respected Sports Physiotherapist Paul Ekman. I built walls and sinks with my father and painted the office colours that Paul Ekman never quite forgave me for. Paul would go on to be through to this day a very genuine supportive friend. I may have made a few less mistakes if I followed more of his sage advice. The Kempsey clinic model of service delivery was very successful as we continued to work collaboratively between Paul Ekman’s Physiotherapy and Enriched Health Care’s Exercise Physiology. This mutually respectful collaborative relationship continues through to today.
Enriched Health Care Accredited Exercise Physiology services included chronic disease management, brain injury rehabilitation and musculoskeletal rehabilitation. We were now successfully providing services under Medicare, Department of Veterans Affairs and NSW WorkCover across the Mid North Coast of NSW. I was a firm believer in the benefits of Exercise Physiology and was passionately promoting the profession through seminars, GP visits and community events. It was during this time that I developed some of what would become the core “pillars” of Enriched Health Care. We were at this stage very focused on delivering High Quality and Outcome Focused Health Care”.
Gay Cowan in the attached picture was patient number 50. She was 6 months into her 10 years with Enriched Health Care. She is still with us today.
It was in June 2008 that Enriched Health Care partnered with the divisions of General Practice and Dietitian Peter Clarke (Healthier You) to deliver a multidisciplinary program under Rural Primary Health Services. This program would go on for many years achieving exceptional health care outcomes. But more about that in the next years ?
By July 2008 Enriched Health Care had provided Exercise Physiology services to around 1000 patients. I was young, passionate and eager to expand Enriched Health Care in new ways of quality health care delivery. I had disdain for mediocrity in health care service delivery models and made big plans for the 2008/2009 year to come….
Year 4: 2008/2009
Leading the development of Patient Centred Multidisciplinary Care.
As the owner of a successful Health Care business providing Exercise Physiology I was eager to passionately pioneer real models of multidisciplinary health care. Enriched Pty Ltd purchased an existing Physiotherapy practice FizzSport Physiotherapy to start this journey. Both businesses were of the same size and shared similar goals and approaches to care delivery. I was grateful to have the benefit of having Naomi Lyons assist the transition as we took considered time to integrate the two businesses. Enriched Health Care has always led with the implementation of technology and we completed significant projects like moving all the team on to a computer based practice management system. This seems so simple now, but at the time this was anything but the norm.
Enriched Health Care was now running a team of 4 Physiotherapists and 3 Exercise Physiologists plus support staff. We additionally had the remarkably smart Sports Physician Dr Larry Bryant working with the team.
Enriched Health Care was engaged within multiple projects including chronic disease management, hospital inpatient and outpatient orthopaedic physiotherapy, musculoskeletal rehabilitation and functional conditioning programs. The Rural Primary Health Care Service program for Hastings Macleay Division of General Practice was now into its second year. This program was delivering outstanding results for participants with decreased body weight, improved blood pressure, increased physical activity levels and improved quality of life. The program was well received by the local Kempsey General Practitioners. We also now engaged with Mid North Coast Division of General Practice and started the delivery of Exercise Physiology in the Coffs Harbour region. We started working with Endocrinologist Dr Sultan Linjawi at Coffs Harbour Diabetes Centre. This relationship would continue for many years with Dr Sultan Linjawi’s commitment to quality health care outcomes delivering another unique multidisciplinary model of care.
The hospital contracted Physiotherapy services were running very well and I sincerely enjoyed the regular meetings with their management team.
Nambucca Health Care Family Medical Centre led by Dr Mark Smith was also developing excellent models of multidisciplinary care which led to expansion of Enriched Health Care’s Exercise Physiology services at Nambucca.
Additionally, Enriched Health Care also established ourselves as a stand out provider of professional Job Capacity Account Services. Within these programs we were providing effective professional health care interventions for Job Seekers with disabilities.
The health care team of professionals continued to grow rapidly and to assist with strategic growth we used the Business Development services of Phil Thomson and Ana Bielich who joined the team from a medical practice manager background. With Naomi Lyons on maternity leave, Phil, Ana and I essentially made up the Enriched Health Care management team.
Somewhere amongst all of this growth I built another 250 square metre clinic in Laurieton. Complete with a fully equipped gymnastics centre. The Laurieton patients were always engaging and I found great fulfillment in developing a fairly novel service for the area.
2008/2009 financial year was a year of extraordinary growth and a steep learning curve for myself within my passion to develop a unique model in multidisciplinary care. I was reading a lot and was heavily influenced by a book called “Through the Patient’s Eyes”. I took great pride in adding the “Patient Centred” pillar to our service delivery. At this stage Patient Centred Care models were rare in Australia. I strategically integrated all of the Picker Institute’s principles of Patient centred Care into our model of care. This included the Picker Institute’s seven primary dimensions:
• Respect for patients’ values, preferences and expressed needs
• Coordination and integration of care
• Information, communication and education
• Physical comfort
• Emotional support and alleviation of fear and anxiety
• Involvement of family and friends
• Transition and continuity
These dimensions can still be found here http://pickerinstitute.org/about/picker-principles/
This is how Enriched Health Care came to have the tag line which we continue to have to today. “High Quality, Patient Centred and Outcome Focused Health Care.”
Year 5: 2009/2010
– High Quality, Patient Centred, Multidisciplinary Care.
The 2009/2010 year was a significant year of continuing promotion of Multidisciplinary care. Enriched Health Care delivered significant meaningful goals to our patients, customers and our team through the 2009/2010 year.
As well as welcoming our 5881st patient, we also:
• Introduced Occupational Therapy to the team of Physiotherapy, Exercise Physiologists, Management and support staff
• Introduced Psychology into projects including the new delivery of Lifestyle Workshops for Women. These workshops produced extraordinary results for women who had significant barriers returning to the workforce
• Continued with the Hospital Inpatient Orthopaedic Physiotherapy
• Continued to deliver the Exercise Physiology Rural Primary Health program in Kempsey with Peter Clarke from Healthier You and Coffs Harbour from Coffs Harbour Diabetes Centre
• Recruited additional Physiotherapists including Moira Finch who would go on to be a highly valuable Senior Physiotherapist for many years
• Enriched Health Care built our third clinic on Lord St in Port Macquarie. This clinic was the built with patient centred care principles in mind and set a new standard in Health Care facility for the Mid North Coast of NSW. Pictures attached ?
• Established Accredited Exercise Physiology Falls Prevention programs within Aged Care Facilities under Aged Care Access Initiative Funding. This included the Hastings Macleay Division of General Practice and the Barwon Division of General Practice
• Established Accredited Exercise Physiology programs within Retirement villages
• Established a clinic in Moree with the fabulous Accredited Exercise Physiologist Dale McCudden at the helm
• Delivered Accredited Exercise Physiology services for people with disabilities under the Job Capacity Account Program across the Mid North Coast and Barwon region
• Continued to provide clinic based Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Accredited Exercise Physiology in our clinics in Port Macquarie, Kempsey and Laurieton. We provided services under NSW WorkCover, Department of Veteran Affairs, Medicare, Private Health
• Delivered Work Place Early Intervention services including Pre-Employment Medicals, NSW WorkCover Medical Injury Management (Dr Larry Bryant) as well as Early Intervention Physiotherapy
• Continued to provide Gymnastics at our Laurieton clinic alongside Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology
• Provided Onsite Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology to international companies
• Despite significant growth Enriched Health Care maintained a patient satisfaction rating of more than 90% patients rating our services better than 9/10
Year 6: 2010/2011
“Leading big health care teams to big health care dreams.. whilst managing shifting goal posts.”
Enriched Health Care continued to promote high quality, patient centred and outcome focused health care. Our unique multidisciplinary approach included now between 15-20 team members. We continued to achieve excellent patient feedback and patient outcomes as Enriched Health Care provided health care to 7994 patients.
Enriched Health Care continued to provide the following health care programs:
• Hospital inpatient orthopaedic Physiotherapy and in clinic multidisciplinary orthopaedic rehabilitation.
• The Chronic Disease Management Rural Primary Health Services Program which had been running in Kempsey, Coffs Harbour and Moree was expanded to Nambucca Heads and Bellingen.
• Accredited Exercise Physiology falls prevention under the Aged Care Access Initiative continued through Hasting Macleay and Mid North Coast of NSW.
• Corporate Health: Pre-Employment Screenings, Early Intervention Physiotherapy Programs, Psychology, Counselling were provided in clinic.
• Multidisciplinary Lifestyle Workshops for Women.
• Port Macquarie, Kempsey and Coffs Harbour Clinic based programs under Medicare, Private Health, Department of Veterans Affairs, NSW WorkCover and Private Fee paying patients
• Gymnastics at Enriched Health Care Laurieton clinic.
Enriched Health Care introduced new programs including the following:
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Care, delivering Diabetes and Cardiovascular Rehabilitation programs in Kempsey, Nambucca Heads, Coffs Harbour and Grafton. This was in combination with the Mid North Coast and Hastings Macleay Divisions of general practice.
• Enriched Health Care established a Cardiovascular rehabilitation program at Kempsey.
Enriched Health Care also faced the first experiences of closing programs as legislation and funding changes affected service delivery.
• Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Dale McCudden worked with great integrity to assist Enriched Health Care by taking over the Moree clinic and service the ACAI funding which was being affected by funding cuts to travel fee charges. She continues to this day to run a clinic called Rehealth in Moree.
• Changes to the funding models for the Lifestyle Workshops for Women resulted them being phased out towards the end of the 2010/2011 year.
• Sports Physicians had gained specialty recognition which had the unusual outcome of allied health care professionals no longer being able to refer to Sports Physician Dr Bryant. GP referrals were now required. Dr Larry Bryan subsequently moved to Newcastle in 2011. We continued to refer to Dr Bryant for many years for non-Medicare related work and he is sorely missed in more recent retirement.
• Michelle Obrien, Enriched Health Care Counsellor, who had assisted with creating the lifestyle workshops also moved to the bright lights of Newcastle.
Year 7: 2011/2012