Last week, a reader from Lampman called me to discuss a recent opinion piece I wrote entitled "Checking up on our healthcare system." The gentlemen, who seemed well acquainted with various efforts to draw in health care professionals to the area, brought the underrated role of nurse practitioners to my attention.
The reader cited a study that showed nurse practitioners' diagnoses as being equally-and in some cases-more accurate than physicians'. Implied was the suggestion that recruiting more nurse practitioners would be easier than physicians and as a strategy, would help to address the ailing healthcare situation in southeastern Saskatchewan.
Although the need for physicians will remain, hiring more nurse practitioners could at the very least provide more patients with timely, basic access to the healthcare system. In the case of an absent physician, an assessment by a nurse practitioner is better than none or even waiting several months. It could get more patients on the radar, so to speak.
In addition to providing timely assessments, nurse practitioners could serve as gateways to the broader healthcare system. With TeleHealth sites in Arcola, Redvers and Wawota, nurse practitioners can connect patients to specialists through two-way videoconferencing. The technology, which uses "the latest tele-diagnostic instruments, including digital stethoscopes, patient examination cameras, and digital imaging," enables a "remote patient to 'visit' an out-of-town health care provider from their home community rather than having to travel," according to TeleHealth Saskatchewan.
Even though Canada is much further behind other developed countries in terms of health information technology, TeleHealth seems to be an exception. The reasons why Canada is lagging behind countries like Great Britain are myriad and include the high degree of autonomy that the provinces wield over healthcare and the large number of health information system vendors competing against one another for market share. In other words, if as a Saskatchewan resident I get sick in Alberta, the chances that a doctor will be able to pull up a comprehensive record of my medical history is unlikely. It would, however, provide for better quality care overall.
TeleHealth, on the other hand, "not only connects sites within its own provincial network, but it can link with other select sites provincially, nationally, and internationally," according to TeleHealth Saskatchewan.
In the case of an immediate medical emergency, TeleHealth technology has its obvious limitations. In less severe cases, however, by enabling patients in more remote areas to obtain medical advice from physicians and specialists from across the country, the potential of this technology for improving the state of health care services in the area cannot be ignored; it may only be a question of getting enough healthcare professionals qualified enough to administer it.
