Some Quebec hospitals are freeing up beds with virtual health care
As she prepared to return home from Montreal's Lakeshore General Hospital earlier than expected, Danielle Lacasse was given a smart watch and a cell phone last Friday.
"A virtual nurse will see all the information, such as your blood pressure, saturation, your temperature and respi‐ ration," Sharon Dubiel told Lacasse.
Dubiel is head of the tran‐ sition unit with the local health agency, the CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'île-de-Montréal.
"Every morning, every evening, there will be a ques‐ tionnaire sent to you by text asking basic questions about your breathing, if you cough, things like that," Dubiel said. "At any time, you can call the nurse 24/7."
Hospitalized for a few weeks for a chronic lung dis‐ ease, Lacasse was happy to return home early.
"At home, I sleep well. I eat well. It's freedom," said Lacasse.
It's all thanks to a new vir‐ tual care program at the hos‐ pital.
"In the West Island, our population is gradually in‐ creasing, but we have limited space at Lakeshore," said program co-ordinator Dr. Amar Bhindi. "This is a way of expanding the number of beds."
Launched in February 2024, the program currently offers virtual medical moni‐ toring for five patients, and Bhindi hopes to double that number in the coming mon‐ ths, he said.
Lakeshore has 257 beds for patients who need hospi‐ talization, and it has one of the most overwhelmed emergency rooms in the province.
When she unveiled the project in May 2023, Sonia Bélanger, Quebec's minister responsible for seniors, antic‐ ipated the implementation of eight such programs by 2024. Radio-Canada has learned only four have been launched so far.
Bélanger said patience is required as this program gets underway. Protocols must be put in place to ensure patien‐ ts have the same close med‐ ical surveillance at home that they would in hospital, she said.
"It's an extremely impor‐ tant cultural change when you are a health professional or a doctor - when you are used to providing care and services in a hospital environ‐ ment," she said.
Dr. Chantal Vallée is with the CISSS de la MontérégieCentre on Montreal's South Shore. The virtual program there is still in its infancy.
"We have to convince doc‐ tors that it is possible to do it," she said. "I think that, of‐ ten, they are the ones who are the most worried."
Ultimately, at Charles-Le Moyne Hospital, 10 to 15 pa‐ tients could be monitored re‐ motely.
"With the aging of the population in particular, we really need to make sure we think very differently about the way we provide care and services to the population," said Bélanger.
Her office says 10 more hospitals are expected to join the project this year. The en‐ tire project has a three-year budget of $76 million.
However, CISSS de Laval management convinced the Ministry of Health to inte‐ grate the virtual care pro‐ gram into a face-to-face ver‐ sion.
A team of around 20 nurses and up to nine doc‐ tors monitors around a dozen patients and can make up to four home visits per day.
With a budget of nearly $3 million, CISSS de Laval says it will increase to 20 patients in the coming months.