New Toronto clinic set to redefine personalized health care

Harrison Healthcare’s model is a team-based approach where physicians are supported by a diverse group of professionals, including nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered dietitians, exercise physiologists and mental health care navigators. supplied

Aim is to provide ongoing lifelong care and support

In a city known for its bustling corporate health sector, a new player, Harrison Healthcare, is entering the market with a model that focuses squarely on personalized family care. Founded and chaired by Don Copeman, the company is set to open its doors in Midtown Toronto next month – its first foray into the eastern Canadian market.

According to Mr. Copeman, it’s more than just business; it’s a mission to redefine what private health care can be.

Mr. Copeman, who established Copeman Healthcare Centres in 2005 before its acquisition by TELUS Health in 2018, sees a gap in the Toronto market. He notes that the city’s private health services are heavily geared toward executive health assessments, a model he describes as “a depersonalized, cost-ineffective, retail-style health-care market, with plenty of add-on tests and services being sold to clients.”

Harrison Healthcare is positioned as the next generation of Mr. Copeman’s original vision. Its focus, he explains, is not on one-off assessments but on delivering “ongoing, lifelong care and counselling to individuals and their families.”

The company’s model is a team-based approach where physicians are supported by a diverse group of professionals, including nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered dietitians, exercise physiologists and mental health care navigators.

“We are squarely in the personalized, compassionate, high-service health-care business. We are not in the retail business,” says Mr. Copeman. “This is our largest competitive advantage by far. It is also the reason we chose Midtown Toronto as our first location, so we can be closer to people’s homes.”

The company offers a comprehensive health-care service that is focused on proactive programs for disease prevention, healthy longevity and chronic disease management.

“Building strong, long-term relationships with your care team is essential for delivering more personalized and preventive care,” says Mr. Copeman. “When individuals feel truly heard and understood, they are more likely to engage with their health plans.”

A deeper connection also allows the care team to better tailor recommendations to each person’s unique needs, he adds.

“This is a key strength we bring to the table, and it’s something currently missing from many executive health systems in Toronto. Our commitment to fostering these longitudinal relationships is what sets us apart and ensures better outcomes for our clients,” says Mr. Copeman.

Another key element is the navigation and advocacy services Harrison provides to help guide clients through the often-complex public health-care system, from finding specialists to securing diagnostic imaging.

He notes that provincial legislation does not permit charging a fee for an enhanced insured service. Instead, Harrison generates revenue by offering a wide range of uninsured professional services that support and complement the physician’s work, allowing doctors to spend more time with their patients.

“We’ve had to be thoughtful and scientific over the years to develop a model that delivers enhanced healthcare, but all within the framework of existing legislation,” he says.

For example, a Harrison client with diabetes might receive most of their care from a registered dietitian, with physician intervention only necessary to establish health targets.

Mr. Copeman sees Harrison’s model as complementary to the public system, arguing that a focus on prevention is key to the fiscal sustainability of health care in Canada. He contends that by providing a private option for co-ordinated, multi-disciplinary care, Harrison reduces the expensive downstream costs of emergency room visits and hospital admissions that burden the publicly funded system.

For Harrison, expansion into Toronto is a step to it becoming a truly national company. It is also in line with an altruistic motivation. Mr. Copeman says the company has been working for 20 years to use the knowledge it has gained to make its services more accessible to more Canadians at a lower cost.

He envisions a spectrum of services at different price points, with the long-term goal of providing effective preventative services for as little as $100 a year through technology.

This ambition is backed by a 2005 Decima Research poll that indicated a strong willingness among Canadians to pay for a service like Harrison’s. Mr. Copeman points to this data as evidence of a massive latent market. He estimates the potential market for such services to be over $47-billion per year, a number he says represents about 12 per cent of Canada’s annual health-care spending.

“People want it, they want this service, and we can’t build clinics fast enough,” he says.

For Mr. Copeman, the mission is simple: to make effective, prevention-focused health care available to a broader segment of the population, starting with the discerning individuals and families who are willing to invest in it.

“We really wanted to help address the health-care challenge,” he says of his initial motivation, a challenge he believes remains as urgent as ever.

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For more information, visit harrisonhealthcare.ca