Telehealth to link critical services

Wimmera Health Care Group’s Intensive Care Unit will soon be able to link from Horsham via telehealth to a critical-care specialist at Melbourne’s Alfred Health.

Taking part in the Critical Care Telehealth Project is another way for Wimmera people to receive metropolitan-level care without leaving the region.

Mildura Base Hospital implemented the Critical Care Telehealth Project in 2017, which used telehealth to manage certain patients at Mildura ICU through support from Alfred Hospital ‘intensivists’.

Following Mildura’s success, Safer Care Victoria organisation is now supporting other services to get involved, including Wimmera Health Care Group, one of three regional areas trialling the model.

Wimmera Health Care Group medical services director Professor Alan Wolff said the project was another leap forward in rural health care.

“Through telehealth, our doctors can review the care of ICU patients with intensivists in Melbourne,” he said.

“This allows for a broader range of patients to be treated here in our ICU and not transferred to Melbourne away from their home and support networks. A camera is set up and the intensivist in Melbourne can see the patient, hear the patient and even talk to them.”

Wimmera Health Care Group’s critical care telehealth project officer Carmel McFarlane said project members from Mildura Base Hospital and Alfred Health had visited the Wimmera Intensive Care Unit.

“They came to meet the team in preparation for starting consults,” she said.

“They were happy with what we have in place and excited as we are about this project coming to life.”