RCCbc is marking five years of successes with the Real-Time Virtual Support (RTVS) program.
Initiated in March 2020, the RTVS network is a publicly-funded suite of virtual support services. In addition to RCCbc, partners in the service include the First Nations Health Authority, UBC Digital Emergency Medicine, the Ministry of Health and Northern Health. The partners aim to enhance access to health care and equity for underserved communities through a patient- and community-centered approach.
A new report details the work of the partners and how they have contributed to healthier communities over the past five years.
Highlights of the report reveal:
- RTVS peer-to-peer has now reached 168 rural and First Nations communities across BC, including 115 RSA A communities—78% of the province’s most medically isolated communities, ensuring critical support where it’s needed most.
- RTVS is estimated to have averted over $34M in medical travel costs for patients and their families.
- RTVS is helping to stabilize rural Emergency Departments.
- RTVS increases specialist access, including access to pediatric, critical, internal medicine and maternity care.
- Rural providers report being more comfortable taking on rural work because of RTVS.
- RTVS has enabled the spread of three-way videoconference conversations between patients, primary care providers and specialists.
168
Rural communities have used RTVS since 2020.
34
Million dollars in patient and family medical travel costs averted because of RTVS since 2020.
3
Video-conference calls in the RTVS Consultation to Conversation model are 3-way. They involve: 1. patients 2. primary care providers and 3. specialists.
How Can I Help?
The RTVS peer pathways administered by RCCbc help ensure that rural health care providers are properly supported and rural patients receive more equitable access to health care. Rural providers in BC can connect instantly with a friendly on-call RTVS provider who will ask “How Can I Help?”
There is focused virtual support for Emergency (RUDi), Maternity/Obstetrics (MaBAL), Pediatrics (CHARLiE) and Critical Care and Internal Medicine (ROCCi) cases. The VERRa pathway provides overnight virtual support of hospital Emergency Departments that are experiencing physician staffing challenges and can prevent diversion. There are also eight RTVS Quick Reply pathways for support in Hematology, Dermatology, Neurology, Thrombosis, Myofascial Pain, Point of Care Ultrasound, Rheumatology and Oncology.
The first five years of the RTVS partnership have yielded transformative benefits to the healthcare system, making the delivery of care more efficient through streamlining pre-hospital triage and transport, improving access to team-based primary care, and keeping rural Emergency Departments open.
Looking ahead, the UBC Digital Emergency Medicine five-year report urges:
- Continue to integrate RTVS pathways with current in-person health system services towards seamless hybrid care to optimize patient journeys.
- Continue to build capacity and strengthen VERRa to help stabilize rural Emergency Departments.
Read the full report from the Learning Health System Evaluation team.
