Tele-rounding message welcomed by Asian conference delegates

ALBERTON – Paul Young recalls the questions from one of the first patients ever seen via tele-rounding after Western Hospital introduced a virtual health-care model 13 months ago for in-patients who did not have an attending physician.

“Will I get to see the TV doctor tomorrow?” the patient inquired.

Patient response since that introduction, he says, has met and exceeded expectations.

There have been times when over 90 per cent of the patients in the 27-bed rural hospital in western P.E.I. were being seen by a physician checking in via sophisticated video connection.

Last week, Young was in Vietnam for a health-care conference where he told over 2,500 delegates from all over Asia about Western Hospital’s success with tele-rounding.

Young said he explained to the delegates how Western Hospital essentially "threw away the box and came together through this incredible, collaborative project to create something that would give us this stability that we’d been searching for.”

Delegates, he said, viewed the message as one of hope.

“It reminds folks that very innovative and creative solutions or processes can still be implemented within a very complex health-care system.”

He generalized some of the reactions: “‘We need this yesterday. Who do we get in contact with? How do we do this?’

"They see it as part of their health-care fabric that has been missing.”

Young said a World Health Organization representative that was in attendance, suggested Western Hospital and Prince Edward Island’s health-care system be commended for how they might impact global healthcare coverage.

“The weight of those words,” he said, “it’s overwhelming.”

He said the success experienced at Western Hospital is transferrable to other jurisdictions.

Tele-rounding was introduced at Western Hospital as a pilot project in August 2018. The provincial government subsequently entered into a oneyear contract with the service provider, Maple, an Ontariobased telemedicine company.

Tele-rounding, Young said, is designed to provide a temporary level of support.