How telehealth can improve patient care in rural BC

Doctors of BC Post, December 2016.

We hear a lot about the use of telehealth technology in the news these days. Through the Doctors of BC/ BC government collaborative programs, we support a range of telehealth innovations that help deliver quality care to patients.

One such project is taking place in Kootenay Boundary hospitals without an ICU. Specialists are using telehealth to bring ICU expertise to emergency departments in real time to care for critically ill or injured patients.

A “Telehealth Cart” contains a high definition camera and monitor, and enables live video consultations from a patient’s bedside direct to an ICU specialist in Trail. Another camera in Trail completes the live interaction between the two sites. These new video conferencing connections are being established between emergency departments in Nelson, Nakusp and New Denver with the ICU at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail.

The initiative is the result of a partnership of the physicians who make up the Kootenay Boundary Division of Family Practice, the Doctors of BC and that BC government (through the Shared Care Committee, and Interior Health.

You can read the article in the Arrow Lake News here.