PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Morgan Slater AU - Emily Nicholas AU - Fok-Han Leung AU - Aisha Lofters TI - Provider perceptions of knowledge exchange and communication in a multisite family health team DP - 2016 May 01 TA - Canadian Family Physician PG - 415--421 VI - 62 IP - 5 4099 - http://www.cfp.ca/content/62/5/415.short 4100 - http://www.cfp.ca/content/62/5/415.full SO - Can Fam Physician2016 May 01; 62 AB - Objective To describe providers’ self-reported knowledge and use of family health team (FHT) services and to explore attitudes and perspectives about communication issues among health care professionals active within a large multisite FHT.Design Electronic questionnaire.Setting A multisite FHT in Toronto, Ont.Participants Health care professionals active within the FHT (N = 90).Main outcome measures The survey captured demographic characteristics, including the respondents’ roles and experience; knowledge about services available within the FHT; use of services; and perceived communication issues within the FHT.Results Forty-six health care professionals participated (51% response rate). While respondents were highly aware of the clinical resources and services offered at their own site of practice (95% agreed or strongly agreed), only 54% were aware of services offered at other sites within the FHT. Internal referrals for certain specialty services were high (ie, methadone management, obstetric care, intrauterine device insertion, and psychiatry), but less than 50% of other referrals (ie, sports medicine, joint injections, or tropical medicine) were to physicians within the FHT, despite physicians within the FHT offering services in these areas of expertise. Only 60% of respondents believed that patients had equal access to all of the services within the FHT, and 42% agreed or strongly agreed that patients were unlikely to travel between sites to access services. Roughly one-quarter of respondents believed that physicians were unlikely to refer patients to another site within the FHT to receive health care services. Most respondents agreed that the geographic distribution of the sites negatively affected communication within the FHT (68% agreed or strongly agreed).Conclusion Geographic dispersion of team members in a multisite FHT had a negative effect on provider knowledge of available services, perceived patient access to services, and communication within the team. As most FHTs are spread across multiple locations, finding ways to improve communication among team members will be key to maximizing the effectiveness of the patient care provided by these team-based models.