ARCOLA — The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has recently added Arcola to the communities served by its virtual physician program.
The program is a made-in-Saskatchewan option connecting experienced emergency room physicians throughout Saskatchewan to local teams and ERs when no local physician is available in that rural community.
“[It] ensures uninterrupted emergency room services in those communities that are struggling,” explained Dr. Johann Roodt, physician executive for integrated rural health with the SHA.
This program was initially launched as a pilot program in July 2023 in five communities. In 2024, it expanded to communities that have vacancies and disruptions.
This program is a measure to help sustain and support access to emergency health services in 27 communities that have community hospitals with lower volumes in rural Saskatchewan while the SHA works to recruit physicians to these areas.
The virtual physician program allows emergency department physicians to remotely help rural health-care teams through the HealthLine 811. The program enables a registered nurse to consult with an emergency department physician through phone or video calls. The physician will remotely assess the patient to provide care.
“It works similar to any other emergency department you go into,” said Roodt. “The emergency department nurse will do a triage and do an assessment subsequent to that. They would contact the physician through the virtual physician program. You then have a consultation either through telephone or virtual tests and diagnostics will be ordered based on the condition and then a treatment program will be made based on the test results and presentation whether that is treat in place, treat and transfer, or whatever the plan may be.”
“It’s run basically the same as a full ER except that the physician is virtual,” continued Roodt.
He said he is proud of how everyone in the medical field has come together to make this program work for those who need it most while they work on recruiting.
“I’m extremely proud of our physicians, specialists, nurse practitioners and teams across the province trying to ensure our communities have access to emergency room services,” said Roodt.
“We are working as the SHA and with the Sask. Health Care Recruitment Agency,” continued Roodt. “We want local physicians in place. The virtual physician is not meant to replace that. This is a measure to keep the departments open while we are recruiting.”
Added Roodt: “I am happy to see all the rural practice incentives that were put out and the efforts on recruitment. But this is important because we can’t leave patients, families and communities without care and close emergency departments. We have to do as much as we can to try to keep these emergency rooms open and people having access to services.”
According to statistics the virtual physician program has already been taking pressure off Saskatchewan’s health-care system.
“As of April 1, 2024, until now, we have prevented approximately 1,877 disruptions where we had no local physician available throughout the communities. I believe the latest statistics say we have seen upwards of 4,500 patients safely through the virtual physician emergency room program. We are seeing an average of about 130 patients per week in a given week,” said Roodt.
“It’s extremely successful in supporting our emergency departments. For those 4,500 patients they impact the system because they didn't have to drive to the next community with an emergency department that is already bursting at the seams,” continued Roodt.
Roodt says he has also heard from patients who are grateful for the program.
“We have had some patients report back to us that this is an amazing program for rural Saskatchewan,” said Roodt. “We’ve had other patients who phoned us and said we saved them a five-hour trip. There are some great stories coming out of it.”
Roodt says they will keep the virtual assistant program running for as long as they need to.
“I would love to say we are able to recruit to all of our communities and have them full (but) the reality is that's likely difficult in rural Saskatchewan,” said Roodt. “We are working hard to recruit and while we are recruiting, the virtual physician program will do what it needs to do to maintain services for patients and families for as long as it needs to.”
Roodt notes that without local nursing teams in their 27 areas, they would not be able to run this program as successfully.
“I am proud of our local nursing teams,” said Roodt. “Our local teams in these communities have to do some extra training which is a good thing because we are training up our nursing. They are doing an excellent job. This is what teamwork looks like to solve problems in rural Saskatchewan.”
