REDVERS — As of Nov. 4, the virtual physician program has been added to the Redvers Health Centre. The program is a temporary solution to help ensure stable emergency health services are available to residents.
“Currently, they are supplementing the two physicians that are full-time,” explained Joni Wielgoz of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, who added that there are efforts to gain some locum support for the health centre.
“We have been successful with that over the last few months, here and there, and then we supplement the rest with the virtual physician, which has been actually working out pretty well.”
To have a full complement of doctors, the Redvers facility needs three full-time physicians, with the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment program as one portion of the recruitment phase.
“That’s currently where we were able to recruit our two physicians that are there currently through the SIPPA program, and we have requested another seat for SIPPA,” Wielgoz said. “We’re quite hopeful that we will be able to recruit through that program once again to fill that third position.”
Wielgoz said that SIPPA is a great program for recruitment, especially for rural and remote areas, but there are some challenges that accompany it as well.
“We only have the three years to make that physician feel welcomed and integrated into the community,” she said.
Through SIPPA, there are 307 doctors currently practising in the province, an estimated 74 per cent of whom have a practice in rural communities. After their three-year contract comes due, the option to stay or move on becomes a tough decision for those physicians. Ultimately, work/life balance often becomes the deciding factor whether or not to remain in a community.
“Our physician’s work-life balance is incredibly important to consider,” Wielgoz said. “I think having that virtual physician option in our back pocket is very important.”
The virtual physician program not only assists doctors but all levels of health-care providers.
“The nurses also undergo a lot of extra training in order to support an emergency department utilizing virtual physicians,” Wielgoz said. “It’s important to continue on with their skills, the additional skills that they have for supporting those types of environments. It’s important to keep it as part of a regular practice in some of our smaller sites where services are a little bit more difficult to keep consistent. Our goal is to keep the emergency departments open at all times, making sure we have all the tools to do so.”
Feedback in Redvers has been positive, with some praising the level of care and timeliness of being seen.
“Some of them have wondered why we didn’t do this a long time ago,” Wielgoz said. “People didn’t know what to expect, but the buy-in now from the staff there is good. They’re quite happy to be working with the virtual physicians and being able to continue to provide that emergency department support to our community.”
How a virtual
physician visit works
Wielgoz walked through how the experience of seeing a virtual physician unfolds. As with an in-person visit, a patient is assessed by a registered nurse using the Canadian Triage Assessment Scale upon arriving at the Emergency Department.
“From the nurses’ assessment, they will then consult the virtual physician,” Wielgoz explained. “The virtual physician could be anywhere in the province, and from there, the virtual physician will make a decision if the patient requires immediate transport to another site with a physician there, and they will go by EMS, or the other option would be treatment on site by the RN.”
A possible third option in the case of a less-urgent situation would be to come back to the clinic on the following day. For non-emergent health-related questions, people can call the 24/7 HealthLine service by dialling 811.
“Our 811 supports are really good in this province,” Wielgoz said. “When a patient does call 811, they are speaking with a registered nurse. That registered nurse does also have access to a physician that she can consult on the phone. So they are getting some really good advice over 811. The end result might be a recommendation for them to seek emergency department support, but they may be able to be guided on the phone also.”
Virtual physician services were also introduced in Broadview and Kipling earlier this year.
