That’s why, over 10 years ago, a Telemedicine pilot project launched as a joint venture between Providence Care and Queen’s University Department of Psychiatry with the mandate to bring mental health supports to rural communities in Eastern Ontario through video-conferencing technology.
Today, this program operates entirely under Providence Care with support from its community partners and has expanded beyond Telepsychiatry services to include many aspects of Telemedicine, from clinical assessments and interviews to research and education. Formally, Telemedicine or Telehealth is defined as “the use of electronic information and telecommunications technology to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration coordination.”
Eddy Lloyd, a Providence Care registered nurse, has been at the forefront of this service delivery since its inception in 2001. At the time, only nine remote sites received Telepsychiatry services from Providence Care. Today, 83 systems receive regular services from Providence Care and there are a total of 2,250 videoconferencing systems in Ontario.
“We’ve come a long way in the last 11 years,” said Lloyd. “From the start, we recognized a huge need for this type of service due to under-served communities in rural Ontario – many of which are over 200 km away – that desperately lacked specialized care in mental health.”
One of the most well-received and rewarding clinics in Telemedicine at Providence Care is coordinated twice a week for the Metis Nation of Ontario. This clinical service began in 2009 and continues to deliver clinical assessments today under psychiatrists Dr. Tariq Hassan and Dr. Michael Chan. Remote sites serviced can include North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor, Welland and Ottawa – all in one session.
“For me, it’s something I’ve always been interested in,” said Dr. Hassan. “It’s different; it’s outside of the box; and I am able to deliver care to more patients. I had my preconceptions, but after experiencing it, I never felt that the quality of my interviews ever suffered through video-conferencing.”
Like most applications of new technology, Telemedicine faced its skeptics.
In the early days, there were some initial resistance and skepticism as to whether or not this type of medium would be viable for health care delivery, explained Lloyd. But within the last decade or so, Telemedicine has proven to be a powerful and highly beneficial tool that has truly enhanced accessibility to care, widened health care’s reach and shortened wait times for patients and clients.
“The technology allows for just as accurate an interview as one done in-person,” said Dr. Chan. “Sometimes, I find that I get more information via video-conferencing, surprisingly.”
Ultimately, it’s the feedback from the rural communities themselves that have proven the critics wrong.
“Clients and patients have told me, ‘I felt very comfortable speaking to the doctors; it saved me a trip; it was extremely convenient.’ Often, they are too sick to commute long distances and are overjoyed not to have to travel,” said Lloyd.
Dr. Hassan added that, “I’ve specifically asked my patients how they felt about their Telepsychiatry experience and I’ve only received positive feedback. They are very grateful because they have access to the services they need.”
As a frontline health professional, Lloyd puts hours of work into care delivery in order to coordinate the best Telemedicine experience possible. He stresses that, despite it being video-conferencing, it’s not just a technical experience, but a human experience that takes the same amount of attention to care delivery as any other type of health services would require.
“At the end of the day, technology is merely the conduit,” said Lloyd. “The nurses and the doctors are what make any clinical service successful and viable.”
Telemedicine at Providence Care has not only broken down the barrier of distance between people and the care they need, but also allowed for the expansion of clinical education and collaborative research. For example, once a month, Providence Care’s Telemedicine service allows a group of Queen’s psychiatrists to join teams of researchers from five other universities – McGill, Brock, York, University of Manitoba, and University of British Columbia – to discuss the latest developments in worldwide autism research. Providence Care also hosts videoconferencing for this region’s participants in Geriatric Grand Rounds from the Ottawa Civic Hospital. Additionally, Psychiatry residents are being trained in Telemedicine assessments when they complete their forensics rotation at Providence Care.
“Telemedicine is a necessity,” described Dr. Chan. “It goes without saying, the efficiency is tremendous.” He explained that previously, an initial forensic assessment that used to take longer to complete from the time of referral to delivery of report due to travel or bed availability, now take just one to two days.”
“It’s one of the technologies that still have so much potential,” added Dr. Hassan.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Chonglu Huang
Quelle/Source: Kingston This Week, 30.03.2012
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