Physician shortages pose a critical challenge in rural and remote hospitals across B.C., leading to diversions, closures, and operational challenges. Our presentation will provide an overview of an innovative and collaborative approach to addressing physician shortages in BC: Virtual MRP for Mid-Sized Hospitals. The Virtual MRP (Most Responsible Provider) for Mid-Sized Hospitals model integrates virtual physicians into in-person care teams utilizing remote technology to enable patient care including assessment, diagnosis, referrals, and treatment.
In partnership, Interior Health, Northern Health, Emergency Care BC, the Ministry of Health, and the Provincial Health Services Authority's Provincial Virtual Health team have developed this model which aims to incorporate additional physician support into hospitals to stabilize hospital operations, address physician shortages, and reduce strain and burnout on in-person staff. This model will reduce service disruptions and enhance access to consistent, timely care. The model is being piloted at Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH) in Williams Lake, B.C., and scheduled to be piloted in Prince Rupert in early 2025; these pilots will inform scale and enable expansion to other sites across B.C.
Our presentation will highlight key activities taken as part of the development of this model, including:
- Learning from experts in other jurisdictional across Canada where similar models have been implemented with success.
- Actively collaborating with key partners including hospital physicians, nurses, allied health, clinical operations, IMIT teams, indigenous partners, patient partners, and hospital leadership.
- Strong application of the ADKAR model for change management and an innovation framework for all engagement, sessions, planning, and implementation.
- Identifying clinical, technical, and operational requirements.
- Contracting and collaborating with a third-party vendor.
- Developing a readiness checklist and implementation playbook for new pilot sites.
- Leveraging learnings from the pilot sites to inform provincial scale and spread of the model.
We will provide an overview of the key features and requirements of the Virtual MRP for Mid-Sized Hospital model including options for: virtual provider staffing, technology to facilitate virtual care, a technology implementation and support process, new clinical operational workflows, a process for coordinating patient visits and for sharing clinical information including medical record, and on-site staff to support the hands-on clinical interventions required at the site. We will discuss preliminary evaluation metrics from Cariboo Memorial Hospital and how lessons learned have been leveraged to other pilot sites and to help inform the provincial model of care. These learnings will be leveraged for continuous quality improvement. Findings will offer valuable and actionable insights to refine the model to ensure sustainability for long-term resilience against provider shortages and guide scaling and expansion of the model hospitals across B.C.
Presented by:
Robyn Emde, Senior Clinical Leader, Provincial Virtual Health, PHSA
Robyn is a Senior Clinical Leader with the Provincial Partnerships team within Provincial Virtual Health with the Provincial Health Services Authority in BC. She has a clinical background in occupational therapy and has worked across the continuum of care from acute and long-term care, to rural and remote community care and outreach. Robyn has a passion for building scalable, accessible, and equitable healthcare systems, and came into the virtual health space while completing her MBA in global healthcare at the University of Toronto.
Karen Cooper, Executive Director for Clinical Operations – Thompson Cariboo, Interior Health Authority
Karen is an Executive Director for Clinical Operations in the Thompson Cariboo rural region of Interior Health in BC. She has a clinical background in physiotherapy and has worked in Alberta for Alberta Health Services and in BC for Island Health and now Interior Health. She has worked across the care continuum in acute and community and private practice settings. Having grown up in rural Alberta and having worked in rural and remote as a clinician, she has a passion for rural healthcare and supporting access to services for those in our edge communities. She has a Master’s in healthcare leadership and is very excited to be presenting this impactful work to the Digital Health Canada audience.
Karen lives in Kamloops, BC on the beautiful ancestral and unceded territory of the Secwepemc people.
Pam Mulroy, Regional Director, Virtual Health, Northern Health
Pam Mulroy is a distinguished leader in virtual health at Northern Health, where she focuses on the integration and optimization of virtual services to address key health system priorities. As the Regional Director of Virtual Health, Pam spearheads the strategic planning, design, and implementation of virtual health services, ensuring that technologies are seamlessly woven into the overall health service delivery system. She collaborates closely with clinical leadership and health system partners to disseminate knowledge of successful virtual care practices and identify strategic requirements for the adoption of virtual care.
With over a decade of experience in healthcare leadership, Pam previously served as the Executive Lead for Primary and Community Care at Northern Health. In this role, she led the implementation of primary care partnerships and strategies, significantly enhancing healthcare delivery across the region. One of her notable achievements includes the development, implementation, and operation of the Virtual Primary and Community Care Clinic, which has expanded access to virtual primary care services for rural, remote, and First Nations communities. This initiative has successfully augmented services and addressed critical service gaps by working in tandem with primary care teams across the region.
Pam holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Victoria. Outside of her professional endeavors, she enjoys spending quality time with her husband and two children, exploring the diverse landscapes and activities that British Columbia has to offer.
Earn One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) for attending this webinar. Content from the webinar aligns with Core Health Informatics Topics: The Canadian Healthcare System, Information Technology, Analysis and Evaluation
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