Posted by Sudbury Northern Life
With the help of technology and some key partnerships, the Sudbury Regional Hospital (HRSRH) will play a key role in a pilot project to improve care for critically ill patients in northeastern Ontario.
Along with CritiCall Ontario, the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN), the Northeast Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN), Temiskaming Hospital and Kirkland Lake District Hospital (KLDH), the HRSRH will pilot Ontario's first Virtual Critical Care.
Using OTN technology, the HRSRH will provide physicians and nurses in smaller hospitals with immediate access to intensive care support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"This is a concept that had been used with success in the U.S. where a dedicated intensivist and ICU nurse use high tech equipment to monitor patients in smaller satellite hospitals," says Dr. David Boyle, Critical Care Lead for the NE LHIN and HRSRH intensivist, in a release.
"Our model is based on collaboration of critical care providers at both sites and builds on co-ordinating technical resources already in place (electronic medical record sharing, PACS image sharing, OTN teleconferencing), where the HRSRH is the lead site providing expert advice and ongoing support to the local critical care team where the patient is physically located. The local team still remains most responsible for their care."
For example, if a physician at Temiskaming Hospital or Kirkland Lake & District Hospital is treating a patient who requires a higher level of intensive care than they are able to provide - such as a patient that is mechanically ventilated and unstable - the physician calls CritiCall Ontario and is connected directly with an intensivist at the HRSRH.
Once the physicians are in touch by telephone, they use the OTN to expand their consultation with mobile telemedicine carts that allow for real-time audio and video links from the patient's bedside.
"This will allow the physicians to share information and diagnostic images, perform a physical assessment in real time, and quickly determine whether the patient can stay where they are or be transferred to another facility," Boyle said. "We can keep this crucial communication pathway open until such time as the patient can be safely transported, or their crisis passes and they are ready to step down from critical care."
The patient's bedside nurse can also contact the Virtual Critical Care RN in Sudbury at any time for advice within their scope of care.
"At the end of the day this means distant patients and their critical care providers will have a timely critical care consultation, and thus enhance the level of care for the patient," said Boyle.
All data related to patient management and movement during the pilot will be tracked with assessment to occur when the pilot wraps up at the end of 2009. If Virtual Critical Care lives up to expectations, it may be expanded to other parts of the province where physical distance remains a barrier to attaining excellence in critical care.
