(File photo/northeastNOW staff)

By Ben Tompkins

Remote Health Availability

SHA Virtual Physician pilot program officially launches in Porcupine Plain

Jul 4, 2023 | 4:36 PM

The Saskatchewan Health Authority has launched its Virtual Physician (VP) pilot program at the Porcupine Carragana Hospital in Porcupine Plain.

This past Saturday (July 1) also marked the expansion of the hospital’s emergency room hours, which was able to happen due to the VP program.

“The decision was made to look at trialing a virtual physician model in Porcupine Plain to sort of balance the services between the loan physician we have in that community and physicians that then would support the emergency room virtually,” said Andrew McLetchie, vice president of Integrated Northern Health.

“We only had the one local physician and he had voiced that it was just too much for him to cover the hospital 24/7. So, it was either we reduce the level of services in Porcupine to, you know, largely just daytime coverage in the ER, or we look at alternate options for providing expanded hours.”

Porcupine Plain currently only has one full-time, on-location physician, as the second doctor within the community left a couple of months ago.

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A new second physician has been recruited, however, they aren’t expected to complete the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) program until late July or early August.

The SHA also announced a third position for the hospital, back in May, which would give them a full complement of staffing.

“Until we, in a sense, get that third physician, we’re hoping to still use virtual physician services overnight. So, the idea would be that the two physicians would cover kind of eight o’clock in the morning till 8 p.m., and then overnight, the virtual physician services would take calls from our nursing staff in order to support the facility to provide 24/7 care,” McLetchie added.

“This virtual physician model is one that has been used in other provinces and it has seemed to be something that could potentially work for sites like Porcupine that are short physicians, but kind of the types of services needed could be covered virtually, for the most part.”

As of right now, emergency room hours have been restored to 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, with 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

By July 10, the plan is to then further restore these hours to 8 a.m. to 12 midnight daily.

“I think with the third physician, the likelihood is we were able to cover the ER 24/7 with the local physicians in Porcupine Plain and you know, that would be the ultimate goal to go back to the ER services being provided in person in that community,” explained McLetchie.

“We’re not quite back to 24-hour coverage, right now we’re working on staffing 811 for the virtual physician, so the services generally will put us to midnight. We’re hoping to be able to fully staff the virtual physician services in the near future in order to support a community like Porcupine with 24/7 care that’s mixed between the physical presence of their local physician and the virtual physician.”

The Virtual Physician pilot program is a temporary measure that uses HealthLine 811 to provide nursing staff with remote access to physicians located elsewhere in the province during periods of physician shortages or other coverage issues in a community.

Due to the remote nature of the VP program, ER patients requiring urgent or life-threatening care will be transported to an appropriate acute care facility for treatment by an on-site physician.

The status of on-site care of patients that present to the ER will be determined by the health assessment of the VP, will be limited according to the scope of practice of the Registered Nurses (RNs) and Combined Laboratory and X-Ray Technologists (CLXTS) on duty, and may require Emergency Medical Services (EMS) transport to another location for treatment.

Porcupine Plain is the only active hospital in Saskatchewan to have the VP program. According to McLetchie, there are plans to distribute it into other smaller/remote areas.

“We’re not putting or using virtual care for places like Prince Albert or Melfort because they’re larger, busier areas where you kind of need more of the 24/7 physical presence,” he told northeastNOW.

“With sites like Porcupine Plain, which I think averages around six to seven visits to the ER a day, having this virtual kind of service allows for those patients when they present to have access to care and allows for the local physician to not have to be on call 24/7, seven days a week.”

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