How Virtual Visits Are Helping Maritime Doctors During COVID-19
MEMRAMCOOK – Pediatrician and family physician Dr. Elaine Deschenes is set to roll out a virtual consultation service this week, a process that’s been sped-up due to physical distancing measures implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19.
She says the feature will help physicians’ in different ways, but it will be especially useful for someone like her, who serves families in rural areas, many of whom are underprivileged and vulnerable.
“For us, let’s say, we have a family that has many, many stressors at home that affects the child, there could be violence at home…on the phone, if I talk to mom, it will be mom’s perspective, if I talk to dad, it will be dad’s, and if I talk to the child, it will be the child’s,” she said.
“When we do have a visual and it is possible to do interaction as a group with the family as a whole, you can get also the non-verbal cues and all the other information that you get in person. That, for us, is major.”
Deschenes’ practice is based in Memramcook, but she also serves families in Richibucto, Saint-Loius de Kent, and Bouctouche. She says compared to a phone conversation, seeing the doctor would likely help children open up more, making the relationship stronger. Plus, if needed, care workers can ask families to show them their home to make a better assessment of a situation.
Deschenes is among 26,000 physician clients of Telus Health across the country who are getting the company’s new virtual service for free for the first four months. The feature had its soft launch on April 8, with roll-out expected to be completed this week.
Luc Vilandré, president of Telus Health and Payment Solutions, says the value-added service, which would usually cost about $20 to $30 a month, is integrated directly into the company’s subscription-based electronic medical records (EMR) platform.
The company has been developing the feature for some time but sped up the process due to COVID-19. Vilandré said this is one of the ways the company is hoping to help in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
“We thought that with that free offer, a physician would probably get into it very rapidly because there is no financial implication, there’s no big decision to take here. Just get it on and use it with your patients, and they have, of course, the option to opt out after that,” he said.
Telus Health has approximately 1,100 family doctors and specialists in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia already using its EMR platform. Vilandré says changes to healthcare due to the pandemic has allowed doctors across the country to use virtual fee codes. Before the pandemic, the billing function was only allowed for physical consultations in all provinces, except British Columbia, which allowed virtual care billing.
The virtual care feature allows doctors to book appointments, carry out video consultations and update patient records on a desktop, smartphone or tablet. This means doctors can take notes and review patients’ data without having to use multiple devices or platforms.
On the other end, patients can log on to the video call by simply clicking a link for their appointment. They can use audio, video and chat features on desktop or mobile devices to communicate with their physician. Families do need to have Internet access and use one of the compatible browsers like Google Chrome, among others.
Deschenes has installed and tested the service to iron out any technical difficulties before rolling it out. But she’s still trying to figure out how to ensure families who are not as tech-savvy can access virtual care as well.
“Some of our families are not all that technical. So I don’t know how that’s going to turn out but we’re going to have to figure that out,” she said.
Security Is A Priority
Deschenes says providing virtual care is not as easy as jumping on FaceTime or other video call services due to the confidential nature of the information exchanged.
She says Telus Health’s offering provides the level of security she needs as it’s already integrated with the rest of patient data stored in the EMR platform. She also likes that she can use just one platform and that multiple people can be added to the video call.
“So I could have the social worker that works with me that knows the family very well,” she said.
But Deschenes is testing other platforms as well. Through Vitalité Health Network, she’s been able to access a Zoom Pro license to conduct virtual visits. Because her clientele is vulnerable families, her social medicine practice is one of the few allowed to use the platform for virtual visits.
“I have to go get the computer that they’re giving me to use Zoom Pro, so I’m still sort of looking at all the options in what seems to work best for not just us, but also for the families,” she said. “Right now my doors are open to all options that would allow me to do virtual visits.”
In general, Deschenes said virtual care can help in many ways, and she plans to offer it even after the pandemic is over.
“I would say, some days, when there are winter storms and people aren’t able to come when we close our clinics, then we would be able to continue to do our appointments virtually, and not cancel or delay follow-ups,” she said. “It would take much less time for everybody to have to come to an appointment. Some people work and it’s hard for them to leave for a longer period.”
Families who can’t make in-person visits as often due to financial issues can also take advantage of virtual care services, and less driving could be better for the environment, Deschenes added.
“We do have other families that don’t have a car or that live very far. I do hope that this will be a tool to help out,” she added. “I could see for a family, every three appointments can be done virtually [for example], if there are not more serious issues.”
Vilandré echoes the sentiment, saying COVID-19 showed how essential virtual care services are.
“We’ve seen over the last four weeks with the pandemic being declared and propagation being what it is, it became almost a basic need for any physician to have access to video consult to keep the relationship and connection with their patients,” he said.
“This situation has forced health authorities and everybody – it’s the need of the moment – to change the way we’ve been doing things and bring a new approach to maintain the level of service in our healthcare system.”
Telus Health itself has had to accelerate their work. Something that would usually take “at least months,” took just a few weeks.
“We had teams that worked around the clock, multiple shifts, 24 hours a day, to ensure that we would bring that value to our customers, the physicians, because we knew that this was going to be a pressing need for them,” Vilandré said.
“All those platforms that are offering added value of doing things remotely and digitally – there’s been an increased demand on those services. I believe it will also create a residual change in our society and the way we’ve been delivering healthcare.”