Health Care Home Model of Care

Pihanga Health strongly desires to meet our patients’ needs. Health Care Home is a model of care which we have chosen to utilise. This model of care has proven its worth across New Zealand.

What is the model?

To explain the model, it is best to explain what outcomes the model strives to achieve:

Patient Outcomes:

  • Enhancing the patient experience of Pihanga Health
  • Saving patient’s time by having access to Pihanga Health via email and telephone
  • Reducing patient wait time for an appointment

Workforce Outcomes:

  • Supporting staff to operate at the top of their scope
  • Utilising a full complement of an extended care team to provide wrap around care for our high needs patients
  • Improving flow of the work day
  • Introducing new demand management options

System Outcomes:

  • Keeping pace with the demand for services without additional resources
  • Long term sustainability of the practice
  • Reduced rates of emergency department and hospital visits

What does this mean to me as a patient?

Phone Triage

You may notice when you call the practice seeking a same-day appointment, the receptionist may say “We’ll put you on phone triage and the GP will call you back.”

This is so the GP can interface directly with you, the patient, to understand your needs and ensure you are either scheduled for an appointment the same day, seen by another provider, or are scheduled an appointment in the next few days.

Patient Portal

We offer the ManageMyHealth patient portal. We encourage you to register and utilise this service to book routine appointments, request repeat prescriptions, reference your doctor’s notes, see lab results, and secure message with our clinical and administrative team. The more we can interface with you via the patient portal, the more efficient we can be as a practice while saving you time.

Extended Care Team

Our Midland’s Health Network Pinnacle partner has supported a robust Extended Care Team made up of a nurse practitioner, pharmacist, social worker, dietician, exercise consultant, and peer support workers. Our clinical staff collaborate with the Extended Care Team on high needs patients, providing focused and coordinated care.

Long Term Conditions Clinic

We offer a Long Term Conditions Clinic on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with our nurse, Jan. Jan often does health planning with the patient to determine the patient’s wishes in health and discusses with the patient how we can support the patient.

Diabetic Annual Review and Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Clinic

We are offering this clinic on Wednesdays with our nurse, Katina.