Telehealth physician to fill in for emergency room doctor in Dawson Creek during 10-day pilot project
Service aims to decrease patient transfers due to doctor shortage
A B.C. hospital is hoping an online doctor service called RUDi will be the addition it needs to support patients when staff is short.
For ten night shifts, one emergency department physician at Dawson Creek and District Hospital will be replaced by RUDi (short for Rural Urgent Doctor in-aid) which links health-care providers like nurses to on-call doctors located elsewhere in the province via video calls. Nurses will perform patient examinations while consulting with the doctor.
A key aim is to decrease the need for transfers to larger hospitals.
RUDi was initially tested at the Dawson Creek hospital in May with positive results, said Northern Health spokesperson, Eryn Collins.
"Implementation of this virtual option for coverage allows us to provide physician support and maintain continuity of care when we might otherwise need to divert patients to another facility," wrote Collins in a statement. "The program leverages technology and the provincial network of physicians to provide support to care staff and patients, so there's less disruption during periods when physician resources are limited."
Dr. Brydon Blacklaws, who is overseeing the pilot program, said it will definitely increase the workload for nurses, but says they are up to the task.
"It is more work for the nurses to have the doctor virtually. They have to spend a fair bit of time with us," said Blacklaws.
Blacklaws said virtual consultations are not ideal, but are better than having to transfer patients or ask them to return for a simple procedure the next day. He added that staff will continue to transfer patients who need to see a doctor in person or are critically ill.
Last September, the provincial government announced it would hire approximately 470 health care professionals to support rural areas.
As of May 2018, there were 760,000 British Columbians without family doctors or about 17 per cent of the population. At the time, the provincial government announced plans to create networks of health-care professionals for specific in-need regions. These interdisciplinary teams would include family doctors, dietitians, and other medical professionals.
Blacklaws and Collins both say virtual consultations won't reduce the urgency to recruit and keep doctors in remote areas.
"We're grateful for the virtual support while our efforts to recruit physicians to communities are ongoing," wrote Collins.
With files from Daybreak South