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Facilities of the Practice

Originally the practice was built in the mid 1980’s as a 1-2 doctor practice; the building has now had major extensions in 1994, 2005 and again in 2011. At present it boasts 5 large consulting rooms, a comprehensively equipped 3 bed treatment room, large reception area, separate administration areas, and a library and kitchen staff area upstairs.

The building is conveniently situated some 300 metres off the main street opposite a children’s playground on one frontage and a park “the Duck Pond” on the other.

The consulting rooms are spacious, with a curtained off barouche and examination area in each.

The treatment room is set up for procedures such as suture of lacerations, excising lesions, dressings, ECG, Spirometry
(both on new Welch Allyn pc based devices linked into the clinical package), and other minor procedures.

We are comprehensively equipped, having invested significantly in updating plant and equipment consistently since 2005.

Our five Practice Nurses and one Chronic Disease Coordinator have roles in assisting with procedures, sterilizing, immunization, wound care, assisting in test result follow-ups, and education. Each Practice Nurse has specilised areas consisting of Diabetes Resource Nurse, Midwife, women's health, and Cardiac and lifestyle. In 2010 the practice has seen a big move towards chronic disease management, we have trained one of our Practice Nurses to gain the title of Chronic Disease Management Co ordinator. This has seen us introduce new health assessments and increase oppportunities for GP Management plans and Team Care Arrangements.

 In 2007 we were lucky enough to recruit a skilled Mental Health Nurse, through the Medicare initiative, this has expanded to become a full cycle of care offered to patients, assisting towards the proactive use of Doctors time. Seen as valuable members of our team, we are focused on proactively utilising the Nurses time to in return maximise our doctors time. This is recognised in Medicare, with government payments for various activities. In September 2010 we have been very fortunate to gain the services of a Psychiatrist Dr Jacob Alexander, this has expanded on our Mental Health services and offered some great teaching opportunities for all clinical staff.

The Eudunda practice is situated in a council owned building on the Main street of Eudunda. The township is 27 km northeast of Kapunda.

It consists of two consulting rooms, a treatment room, reception area, record room, and a kitchen.

The treatment room allows the performance of minor procedures, If need be, procedures can be booked at the Kapunda site instead, or alternatively performed at the nearby Eudunda Hospital.

Eudunda at present has a Nurse on site 3 days of the week, and the Mental Health Nurse consults here one session per week.

We have traditionally had 5 permanent GPs, a registrar and an intern, we have recently taken on a 3rd year medical student through the Flinders University Parallel Rural Community Curriculum program (PRCC) this sees a student with us for 12 months at a time.

The practice is fully computerised, using a windows terminal services based environment throughout. We use Zedmed office and clinical packages. (www.zedmed.com.au) This Australian package is problem based, reliable, and has excellent technical support. Record keeping has been successfully “paperless” since Nov 2005. The terminal services environment allows access to the same desktop and therefore all clinical information from both practices, both hospitals, aged care facilities, and from home. The links to various sites are via ADSL broadband internet, providing a link fast enough so that even image files have only minor small delays in transfer.

Our practices are accredited with Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL). This is current for 3 years from September 2009. Accreditation is voluntary however our practice views it as portraying a message of ‘quality in practice’ and a commitment to continuing improvement in Australian General Practice.

Both practices have a strong teaching focus and we have one or two general practice registrars with us each year. Since January 2005 we have been fortunate to have an intern rotating every 10 weeks from the Lyall McEwin Hospital. This scheme has been an enormous success, and favorably viewed by patients, interns and the practice alike. The interns practice under close supervision of practice doctors, and are involved in all aspects of practice work both general practice and hospital based.

Recently we have accepted a Flinders University Medical Student into the practice for their entire 3^rd year (of a 4 year postgraduate course) under the PRCC program (Parallel Rural Community Curriculum). This is a well established program that is already operating in 3 other regions of South Australia. One student is allocated to our practice for 12 months, and would also be immersed in the clinical life of the practice for the duration.

Doctors are supported by professional and experienced administrative staff and equipment at all times. Currently we have 8 Receptionists, an Office Manager, Team Leader Reception and Practice Manager in addition to the 5 Practice Nurses 1 Student Enrolled Nurse and Mental Health Nurse.

Some practice staff

Front: Office Manager: Sarah
Left to right: Receptionist Jenny, Receptionist Kathryn
and Practice Manager Sandra