Esteemed Dr. Joshua Greggain recently won the Fraser Health Above and Beyond Award (Service Delivery Excellence) for his outstanding contribution to improving healthcare in Hope and the Fraser Canyon.
“There were unique challenges and opportunities when I started my full time practice in 2007 at a rural hospital — there were challenging times and we had to be creative,”
Dr. Joshua Greggain told The Hope Standard of the trajectory of his success over the past few years at the Fraser Canyon Hospital.
According to Greggain, physicians practice rural generalism out here, and have to be prepared for a host of circumstances and situations specific to an isolated setting.
“There are inherent risks and you have to do certain things in care of patients,” said Greggain. “You have to act — you have to be able do things you’re not comfortable with for that patient,” he said. “If a heart needs to be shocked — you do it, and that takes courage.”
Passionate about his work, Greggain has been acknowledged by peers and contemporaries for the excellent service he provides to the community. With his ground breaking initiatives and the retention of a phenomenal team of ten local physicians, Greggain has been delivering quality care to the rural communities he serves, while addressing the shortage of doctors.
Greggain has embarked on a tireless journey to deal with the lack of physicians here, by creating an inspiring environment, where professionals can work together, persevere, be inspired and commit to exceeding the standard of care the industry currently provides to its patients.
“It’s about creating better care and providing care that’s exceptional in a community this size,” he said.
The lively and humorous Greggain, told The Hope Standard that one of his biggest challenges was attracting talent to a smaller community, so it was key for him to create an impactful environment where interns and physicians, regardless of future plans to stay in the community can grow, learn and thrive.
“This type of environment sends out the message that Hope has a program attractive to doctors,” said Greggain.Implementing a strong leadership model, Greggain has been instrumental in attracting family physicians, International Medical Graduates and locums to Hope and surrounding areas, while providing comprehensive care, 24 hours a day at the Fraser Canyon Hospital.
“It’s about stability and we have a strong core group who are willing and available to go above and beyond — we have a group of people who are committed, people who want to stay for the passion of it,” he said.
Because of its unique location on a major highway crossroads the Fraser Canyon Hospital has been indispensable to patients in the area. Having extra hands on board at the Hospital has improved the patient to physician ratio, while ensuring a higher quality of life for the practitioners (who can often be at risk of burnout with the ongoing problem of physician shortages across Canada.)
An outreach initiative started by Greggain in Boston Bar has put the Fraser Canyon on the map in terms of new strategies and medical technologies to address gaps in local health care — a satellite clinic in Anderson Creek is the first of its kind and represents a careful collaboration between Boston Bar, First Nations, Chilliwack Division of Family Practice, Fraser Health and Health Canada. Public, mental and primary health care services are also available through a state of the art telehealth and video-health service that offers a life line to isolated patients.
The telehealth unit located at the Fraser Canyon Clinic on Wallace Street is as simple as hooking up the link, and through a live teleconference, patients from surrounding areas like Boston Bar can receive first rate care with physicians in Hope.
“Telehealth is the way of the future — it’s a way to bridge the gap geographically, while addressing socioeconomic issues and providing a once a week outreach in Boston Bar,” said Greggain.
