Telehealth allows a patient to visit with a physician through live video to receive a medical diagnosis when they are separated by distance. This means that people in Smithers can “visit” specialists in places like Prince George and Vancouver without actually making the trip.
It’s more efficient and less costly, and in many cases the patient can receive the same results as they would in an “in person” medical examination, Jerry Causier, director of care at BVDH, said. “What we’ve found is that much of what can be accomplished in a traditional face to face conversation and information exchange in an examination room can also be done through a videoconference.”
A number of procedures can be performed and viewed by a physician through telehealth.
“We can have a local technician perform some action on the patient — often for a diagnostic test — and a specialist at a distant location can interpret the result in real time by videoconference,” he said. “For the specialist it may be the next best thing to being there.”
Thanks to this new technology, Health Services Administrator Cormac Hikisch said that a patient with a heart problem can have an ECG right here in Smithers.
A doctor and an ultrasound technician are in the room with the patient, while the video image of that patients heart is being broadcast all the way down to a Vancouver hospital where a cardiologist is watching from the other end.
The cardiologist can even talk back and forth with the patient and doctors during the process. It certainly avoids many unnecessary visits outside of the community, Hikisch said. Adding that right now the hospital is running between 200 and 250 adult ECG procedures a year as well as 20 to 25 pediatric ones.
The hospital has also recently received funding to trial follow up tele-rheumatology, which deals with rheumatism, arthritis, and other disorders of the joints and muscles. The visiting rheumatologist comes to Smithers about four times a year to do assessments in person, and that will continue, but now, when there’s a need for a follow up appointment it can be done via Telehealth technology.
“It avoids the patient going [out of town] for a short term follow up, and it also allows that rheumatologist, when she comes up here, to do more initial consults with people that need to see her, and so it keeps her availability more clear for Smithers,” Hickisch said.
Causier said that the benefits are absolutely huge. “The cost and inconvenience of sending a patient — and often an accompanying family member — to see a specialist or another health care provider in a distant community is often a very legitimate concern. People may have to take time off work, find childcare, arrange transportation and perhaps accommodations near the health care professional they need help from.”
Hikisch said that Telehealth is also accelerating treatment decisions. He said that if, for example, a Smithers pediatrician realized that a child had a heart issue on a Thursday evening and he thought it might be urgent, the hospital could have an ECG ready at 8 a.m. the next day for a specialist to analyze.
Causier said that Telehealth is especially important in a small northern town like Smithers. “Because of our distance from major centers and our reliance on road or air travel in an area that is prone to weather challenges a great deal of the year, having Telehealth available is a huge advantage. Patients can access expertise that is hundreds of km away during a raging blizzard without having to face dangerous driving condition or airplane delays.”
The Telehealth technology also allows staff to receive clinical education opportunities, hold meetings and watch or give broadcast presentations.
Today most hospitals use some degree of Telehealth, but Causier said that the BVD Hospital certainly has one of the more robust and well used programs for a facility of its size.
“Northern Health has put a lot of investment into different uses of [telehealth] and we will continue to,” Hikisch said. “We’ll continue to see it become a standard tool for people to use.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Kari Bolen
Quelle/Source: Houston Today, 01.09.2010
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