Nurse practitioner may expand to meet demand
Ellisa Sinnicks-House is trying to meet demand as demand presents itself.
Lately, the nurse practitioner is seeing the demand for fee-for-service primary health care increase. It doesn’t surprise her because she knew the need was there and it’s one that continues to grow as more family physicians leave the city.
Sinnicks-House spoke about her Livewell clinic, at the Rotary Club of Corner Brook’s weekly luncheon at the Glynmill Inn Thursday.
In an interview later Sinnicks-House said with the number of hours she’s allocated to the clinic, she’s fully booked most of the time and is close to the limit on the number of patients she can accommodate.
But with new clients coming almost every day, she’s open to looking at expansion.
“I’m sure there’s more of a need than I’m filling right now,” she said. “I think there’s still a lot of people who aren’t aware that the service is available to them.”
She is already expanding the services offered at her clinic to include pre-travel consultations and vaccines. She’s hired a registered nurse to help with this and the provisions of other services.
“There’s a lot of ways we can help implement more care to clients in a timely manner,” she said.
Services of a nurse practitioner are not covered under the province’s medical program. That is something Sin- nicks-House would love to see.
If the services were covered, Sinnicks-House said it could attract more interest from other nurse practitioners who would like to do what she’s doing.
“They are a little hesitant about the private billing, but definitely interested in providing autonomous clinics as physicians do or other healthcare providers.”
“They are a little hesitant about the private billing, but definitely interested in providing autonomous clinics as physicians do or other health-care providers.” Ellisa Sinnicks-House