The age of virtual healthcare is booming like never before. Just recently, the Ontario government announced $3 million in new funding to compensate physicians for video visits that they provide which will add an additional 55,000 more video visits to patients as part of Ontario's Digital First for Health Strategy. But are Ontarian's on-board?
The digital age is rapidly changing the way we live our lives, and digital healthcare is no exception. Being able to access personal health records online and shared across healthcare providers, further access to online appointment booking, rural areas having access to medical care with specialized video care from home and healthcare facilities... these are just some of the ways Ontario is being a leader in providing better access to healthcare.
Shortage
Currently, according to Ontario Health statistics, there are over a 1 million people who do not have a family doctor. There is a severe shortage of doctors in Canada and it's a situation that is not improving anytime soon. As a result, hospital emergency rooms are jammed with patients with non - emergency issues such as flu symptoms.
According to a recent public report from Health Quality Ontario for emergency room wait times in September 2019 (see screenshot below), the average time spent in emergency was 17.1 hours before admittance and an average of 1.6 hours wait time before an initial assessment by a doctor (Access current statistics here). During the flu season, these numbers dramatically increase pushing the current 17.1 hours to 30+ hours in some hospitals.
While Premier Doug Ford recently promised the end to "Hallway Healthcare" within the next year, Chirsitne Elliott, Minister of Health and Deputy Premier of Ontario, publicly announced that it could take much more time. And, its going to take a lot more help.
Health Tech
The ability to have access to a medical doctor from your home, #healthcare facility or even through your mobile device by video connection is a huge step to providing an "access to all" initiative. And using this service provides exactly the same offerings and experience as an in office visit. The Ontario Telehealth Network (OTN) have named this service offering, eVisit. Here is a promotional video published by them that shows just one of the benefits that the eVisit service addresses...Rural Areas.
Another way that Ontario is making advancements with ease of access was the launch of
prescription dispensing machines in Toronto back in June. These machines provide over 600 medications and over-the-counter drugs and provide a live video link with a pharmacist. While initially implemented back in 2006 in a test phase, this is the first that has launched for the general public to use and will have 7 of them around the GTA by the end of the year. While we are nowhere near close to having a perfect healthcare system, this is definitely a huge step towards that end goal. Just last year I was invited by email by my clinics office to register myself and family to be able to now do appointment bookings online and have access to urgent care messaging. It truly is amazing what our possibilities are these days. And to just think how this will benefit so many in Palliative care, the elderly, rural communities....it's endless. Rather than this be a normal informational post to you, I would like to reverse that and would love to get some feedback from you about #eVisit. Have you experienced it? How has it made a difference in your lives? Do you think it is better or worse than traditional office visits? Or for those that have not experienced it - what do you think of this type of healthcare service? Would you use it? Let me know in the comments so we can discuss!
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