(From Connexion Newsletter Fall/Winter 2023)

When wildfires struck the North Shuswap area this summer, about half of the Chase Medical Clinic’s 10,000 patients were evacuated while another 45 per cent were put on alert. Clinic providers met to discuss their emergency management plan.

Schedules were rearranged to ensure medical staff coverage in the Chase Emergency Room, and clinic phones were rerouted to Salmon Arm so that office staff could provide support from east of the Highway 1 closure.

Doctors Cornel Barnard and Ben Robinson were able to keep the Chase clinic open, and nurse practitioner Keltin Everett was evacuated to Salmon Arm but wanted to provide care from that side of the wildfires.

Caring for her infant son at the time, Keltin approached Interior Health and requested that her maternity leave be temporarily suspended so that she could support evacuated patients in Salmon Arm.

“Keltin reached out to me as she wanted to support her patients, community, and primary care practice by offering a few hours daily in an alternate clinic,” said Dr. Louanne Janicki, DNP MSN NP (Family) Director, Professional Practice Office, Interior Health. “This demonstrates her strong commitment to patient-centered care and her resilience and willingness to help patients access health care during the wildfire crisis, especially when she herself was also affected by evacuation orders and alerts.”

The Thompson Region Division of Family Practice connected with the Shuswap North Okanagan Division and found a physician, Dr. Helen Imolele, who was willing to share extra clinic space in Salmon Arm to accommodate Ketlin and Medical Office Assistant Doreen Kirby, also evacuated from her home in Scotch Creek.

“The effectiveness of the Incident Command structure allowed the Thompson Division staff to quickly escalate Keltin’s request amongst IC members,” said Katherine Brown, the Division’s Executive Director. “Our proactive outreaches to members, interdivisional collaboration, and support from Interior Health resulted in a satellite clinic being up and running within 48 hours.”

The satellite clinic saw patients mostly for prescription refills since they had to leave their homes so quickly, and there were also minor injuries sustained in the evacuation and a few primary care visits moved from colleagues in Chase to help keep the Chase ER open.

“We were evacuated, and my own community was affected with 90 per cent under order in our catchment,” Everett said. “It was an all-hands-on-deck situation, and since I have no firefighting skills, I wanted to help how I could by offering consistent health care in a crisis.”