Mbtelehealth: Report to Our Partners
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Research Centres, Institutes, Projects and Units E-Health Resource Repository 2003 MBTelehealth: Report to Our Partners. MBTelehealth MBTelehealth MBTelehealth. 2003. MBTelehealth: Report to Our Partners. MBTelehealth: Winnipeg, MB. 1-47. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/43075 unknown Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca MBTelehealth Network Sites Marquette and South Westrnan were amalgamated into ~ssiniboineRHA in Spring, 2002 By Wayne Bo-ye,MBTelehealth Director, WRHA sector suppliers of equipment and services, sent home to be official representatives of the hospital information technology (I.T.) new network. Dear Reader; departments and health administrators from all regions of the province. In less than a year, the network was ready to As you thumb through the pictures, charts and go. Manitoba Health Minister David Chomiak articles that follow, you will be struck, as I was, At the beginning of the MBTelehealth project, officiated at the network launch in February by the diversity of people, places and activities in early March 2001, the late Dr. Ron Duhamel, 2002 with a connection to Flin Flon. By April that have been a part of the growth of telehealth senior federal cabinet minister for Manitoba, all sites with the exception of Norway House in Manitoba. accompanied by Cabinet colleague Dr. Rey were functioning. It came on board in June. These past two years have been demanding, to Pagtakhan, offered support for the project while pledging $3 million for development over the At almost every site patients started coming be sure. They have involved the mastery of new immediately. Information and Communication Technologies next two years. - what we have come to call ICTs. That announcement produced a flurry of activity. Continuing Medical Education sessions, developed in partnership with the University They have involved the collaboration of people Dr. Ray Postuma and this writer immediately launched a province-wide tour to sign up of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine began in the who have never worked closely together before. spring of 2002 with respectable tumouts almost Included in the long list of regional health authorities, to stimulate interest among care providers and to set the stage for from the beginning. A total of 796 caregivers contributors to (not all doctors) have attended these sessions. MBTelehealth are staff an intensive needs assessment process. from Manitoba As staff began to settle into their roles, it was 1 Staff were recruited and hired for all 20 rural Telecom Services and A* 1 L.- -- X n. .L:.. -- ---:LT. X r-..:L-l.- time to hold "ooen houses" at each site. This nortnem locanons. Meenngs wirn ManlroDa (MTS), officials in the Hea.lth and MTS put together the switches, brought on another round of province-wide Manitoba Department rout:ers, and high speed lines that were needed traveling, but this time some of us could of Health and Health participate "virtually" over the "link". for lthe technical infrastructure. Technical Canada, . con!wltants were hired. Video conferencing With few exceptions network usage grew every lpanies were interviewed and a series of month. This didn't happen by accident. Each :quests for proposals" were written, offered site coordinator developed a marketing plan. mto the market, reviewed and analyzed. From the central office letters were written to New offices were found. Technical, family doctors and to specialists telling them operational, financial, policy and clinical about how to access network services. files were established. Individualized posters were produced and distributed. Coffee mugs with "MBTelehealth" blazened upon them, were distributed. Clinical meetings were held with specialty teams; Cancercare Manitoba joined the Network; and by February of 2OO3,5 1different specialty areas had agreed to provide services over the Network. the network was successfully linking to 11 sites With the milestones came setbacks. Staff in in North Western Ontario to offer specialist care: Lynn Lake, Leaf Rapids, Dauphin, Thompson, to our sister Network, the NORTH Network. Portage la Prairie, Steinbach and winnifeg Today, in our first 12 months of operation 2034 Later, successful connections were made to moved on to new opportunities requiring our sessions were held. Over 1,000 of those were communities in the Kivaliq region of Nunavut. site supervisor, Liz Adair to recruit and organize training for the new staff. As network volumes clinical services to patients. It is difficult to Another important milestone for staff was the determine all the benefits and cost savings of increased, it was necessary to recruit and train mastery of the technology to link many sites backup staff for many of our sites. these events. A new piece of healthcare together for two-way video conferences. This knowledge shared with a rural or northern doctor has allowed the Network to offer much needed Like all projects dependent upon technology, or nurse that positively impacts patient care, access to grand rounds education for topics like our network has experienced "technical how does one measure that? medical ethics, SARS and cancer care. At the difficulties". They have required patience and In January 2003, Continuing Nursing Education same time, the network was growing internally, goodwill to resolve since they can occur at was added to the roster of educational activities. with more and more buildings at St. Boniface many points along the complex circuits of lines In the first three months, 286 nurses attended and the Health Sciences Centre receiving drops. and digital switches, routers, gatekeepers, sessions. Smaller projects to connect the Neonatal gateways and "Multi-Point Control Units" that Intensive Care Unit at the Children's Hospital make up our Network. In February, electronic stethoscopes began to across the HSC campus to the Women's be rolled out to sites. In March, patient exam Hospital, as well as to the nursery at the From my vantage point I've watched staff come cameras were distributed to some sites. And, Thompson Hospital some 780 km away were into their positions with initial excitement only while all these little milestones were passed, supported by MBTelehealth. to be quickly overcome with panic. "There's so much to learn", "I'm not technical", "I woke up . .I , P. I .... 1- . .. or wing time" to access specialty care. Telehealth families and children are more relaxed and less stressed compared to the traveling patients who, to keep the appointment, need to find child care, take time from work, bear much of the costs personally and navigate bv Raj. Posttima, MD FRCSC A Vision is a picture of the future that creates passion. For the MBTelehealth Medical their vehicles and themselves through confusing MBTclchealth Medical Director Director and staff that passion comes from the (and often risky) mazes of traffic, parking, picture of telehealth providing 'information and tunnels and corridors of many buildings to find knowledge at the point of care' and 'just in the tertiary care clinic. time.' Children in particular enjoy telehealth. They For the patients and families who used treat it as a familiar medium where they see MBTelehealth during the first full year of themselves, their parents and the distant care operation it meant long distance travel reduced provider safely over the video monitors. to a short trip to the local health centre to see Recently, over telehealth, I saw a very upset the same specialist over telehealth. As the youngster brought into a distant examining medical director, but also as a pediatric surgeon room. His tears and uncooperative behavior ~racticin~telehealth. I am remlarlv very quickly changed to smiles and play when his video monitor came on and he could see himself, his mother and me - now at a very safe telehealth and how grateful distance! -- 1 they are for not having to Typically, patients and families show up for spend all that "windshield the telehealth visit in their work and school clothes, ready to return to routine daily activities right after the telehealth appointment. Their dav and-A A in-A A manvA A case9 a night nr twn iq nnt --,, - ---J ----- - ---D=-" -- v..- 9 ------ spent away from home and loved ones, as well as other community and personal responsibilities. An increasing proportion of rural patients now receive at least part of their care by telehealth. Recently, after witnessing a telehealth consultation for his son, the father requested that his own cardiology follow up be done by telehealth. Telehealth is advantageous also for the provider malfunctioning specialized feeding tube. Manitoba traditionally serves the health needs who can now conduct a clinic from their nearest Ordinarily this would have meant an emergency of neighboring North Western Ontario, Nunavut telehealth centre. Earlier this year I was trip into Winnipeg. Over telehealth, the special and Eastern Saskatchewan. Hence, in keeping scheduled to do a telehealth clinic at the Health tubing was demonstrated to the local family with traditional referral patterns, MBTelehealth Sciences Centre, to be followed immediately doctor who was then shown how to place the provides telehealth for patients in these by an emergency neonatal procedure at St. tubing. The doctor then proceeded to place the jurisdictions. This has led to inter Boniface General Hospital. Telehealth solved tube under direct supervision over telehealth provincialherritory collaboration, physician my dilemma as I was able to do the telehealth ('tele mentoring" a.k.a. "tele presence.") This licensing agreements and physician payment clinic from St. Boniface, and then immediately safe procedure went well, the parents were mechanisms. proceed upstairs to do the surgical case, avoiding extremely gratehl and the physician was very the delays of rush hour traffic or, alternatively pleased for being of service to his patient and Other significant milestones were the selection having to cancel the patients' clinic having learned a new skill. Telehealth in this and development of central staff and telehealth appointments.