The Rural Surgical and Obstetrical Networks (RSON) stabilizes, supports and enhances the delivery of quality healthcare to vulnerable rural populations in British Columbia, including Indigenous populations.
The Journey of RSON
The Rural Surgical and Obstetrical Networks (RSON) initiative ran as a five-year project from 2018 to 2023. Initially developed in response to the persistent attrition of rural maternity services over the past two decades, RSON was designed to strengthen rural maternity and surgical sites in British Columbia, with the goal of enhancing access to quality surgical and obstetrical care closer-to-home for rural people in BC.
Funding was made available through the Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues (JSC) to support evidence-based system interventions to sustain rural, small volume maternity and procedural care. The funding was applied to 10 communities representing different geographies and health authorities. Through this network, rural hospitals received support in five main areas: clinical coaching, quality improvement, expanded operating room use, remote presence technology, and ongoing evaluation.
As of 2025, the RSON initiative has been merged into the ongoing work of ROAM (Rural Obstetrical & Maternity Sustainability Program), providing capacity to continue strengthening the provincial network of maternity providers while fostering greater relationships, and increased opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange.
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10 RSA communities participated in the RSON initiative; Fernie, Creston, Golden, Revelstoke, Hazelton, Smithers, Vanderhoof, Port Alberni, Sechelt and Powell River.
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The RSON initiative was funded for 5 years, between 2018 – 2023.
About the RSON model
RSON was developed to support sustainable local/regional surgery programs closer to home in geographic areas served by Enhanced Surgical Skills Family Physicians (ESS FPs) or a solo General Surgeon, by enhancing existing care networks shared with referral centres. Through this work, these rural surgical and obstetric networks support enhanced critical care, emergency and trauma services while also supporting closer-to-home maternity care, including vaginal birth and Caesarian section.
The local/regional RSON-supported model sought to improve both patient and provider experiences of care by:
- understanding holistic risk and cost associated with travel so mitigation strategies can be put in place
- supporting networks of high-quality, highly effective maternity and surgical teams to provide the right care at the right time by the right providers
- supporting rural providers to practice full-scope rural generalist medicine
- enhancing and supporting relationships between team members within the geographic network
- providing a robust evaluative framework for quantitative and qualitative metrics applied to both maternity and surgical care
- providing culturally and rurally appropriate care closer-to-home
RSON Published Research
Team Involved
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