Technology is not the sole answer to the provision of more efficient and effective health care. We know that without the human touch, and compassionate human thought, we might as well provide health services with robots.
But the effective use of good technology can be very exciting. Telehealth is a great example.
Sun Country Health Region has dramatically expanded the availability of this service in the past five years to patients, their families and our staff.
We now have sites at Arcola Health Centre; Bengough Health Centre; Coronach Health Centre; St. Joseph's Hospital - 3 sites; Fillmore Health Centre; Galloway Health Centre, Oxbow; Radville Marian Health Centre; Redvers Health Centre; Wawota Memorial Health Centre; Weyburn Community Health Services Building; Weyburn General Hospital; Kipling Health Centre; Tatagwa View and Gainsborough Health Centre.
We have requests for seven more sites, which we hope to add in the near future.
These sites can be connected to any of the thousands of Telehealth sites in the world at any time, night or day, and inter-connected to one another.
What can this do for you?
1. Telehealth allows you to see a specialist close to home, rather than traveling hours or days for what might be a 15-minute appointment. That is a critical benefit for our residents, in a health region with as many small, rural communities as we have.
It saves driving time, expense and inconvenience, both for the patient and client, and for the health care provider. Imagine not having to worry about parking or driving to unfamiliar destinations!
Specialists don't like to spend hours driving to appointments any more than patients do. In fact, with Telehealth, we potentially have better access to a wider variety of specialists that we did previously. Patients are booking regular appointments with physicians in Edmonton and Toronto, as well as those in Saskatchewan.
A random sampling of time, between Jan. 12 and Feb 4 of this year, shows that patients and clients from all over the Region will avoid driving 23,870 kilometres by using Telehealth services. That's just in three weeks!
This number does not include the large amount of driving time saved in that same period by our staff members, who often attend education sessions or meetings by Telehealth. Those are sessions they may not have been able to attend because of cost or the lack of replacement staff.
2. Telehealth allows for more collaborative medical practice, which is the way of the future.
Our Telehealth interconnections make it possible for many different kinds of health care providers to hear directly what the specialist has to say about a patient/client. In other words, with the patient's approval, another member of your health team, like a public health nurse, Autism Spectrum Disorder worker, Group Home Supervisor, Teacher or member of the Regina Wascana Rehabilitation Team can join your appointment with your specialist.
A family member from another health region can even join your appointment.
This team approach can reduce mistakes and misunderstandings and help both patients and providers understand what's going on.
The opportunities are endless: appointments for mental health counselling, wound checks for post-operative care, disease management for dialysis patients. In fact, research shows that patients feel they get a better service and, in some circumstances, are more satisfied with the services provided by Telehealth than with a personal encounter.
Telehealth is only one of the new technologies we use to help us help you. It can work wonders. For further information, discuss options with your specialist, family physician, or other health team professional.
