Telemedicine is changing the way primary care is delivered in the north.
Our FHT was fortunate to receive funding from the Northeast LHIN to hire a telemedicine RPN, Robert Lapointe. And the impact has been immediate!
He has designed and implemented new programs to harness the capacity of our telemedicine suites. This includes a pilot program in which patients of the CoLFHT who live in remote areas such as Noelville can make appointments via OTN with their physician or IHP at our clinic. This gives patients easier access to clinics located closer to their homes such as the Sudbury East Community Health Centre. Our telemedicine studio has being used for delivering primary care while avoiding travel and saving time for some of our Sudbury east patients.
Our Store Forward program for Telederm has been popular with our patients. Since March, we have had 150 patients assessed by a dermatologist and they have often received a diagnosis in less than 3 days. We have also started a one-on-one clinic with an OTN Dermatologist who has seen over 50 patients since last spring.
Within that same time period we’ve had 180 psychiatry appointments via OTN with numerous psychiatrists from across Ontario. This has allowed us to cut wait times by more than half! And we are, once again, able to deliver a chronic pain management program using the mindfulness approach offered by Dr. Gardner-Nix in Toronto.
