Four Specialty Care homes offer leading-edge telemedicine services
Objectives are to enhance resident care, reduce hospital transfers and build staff capacity
Tuesday January 5, 2010 -- Michelle Strutzenberger
Early in 2010, four Specialty Care long-term care homes will begin offering leading-edge telemedicine services in partnership with Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket.

Telemedicine is the delivery of health-related services and information using telecommunication technologies. The use of these technologies to enhance the care of long-term care residents through collaboration with hospitals is a recent initiative by the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN).

There are now more than 900 sites or clusters of long-term care homes linked technologically to hospitals across the province.

A two-way video conferencing system with tele-diagnostic instruments, including a digital stethoscope and patient examination camera, allows a nurse-led outreach team at the hospital to assess and diagnose residents without them ever having to leave the comfort of the long-term care home.

Skin and wound care assessments and psycho-geriatric diagnoses are two of the services to be offered through the system. In addition, an urgent care option will be available for residents in distress.

Cedarvale Lodge near Lake Simcoe is one of the four Specialty Care homes which applied to be part of the initiative with Southlake.

Cedarvale Lodge administrator Donna Taylor says there are several projected benefits from the telemedicine option.

“The big picture, to put it in perspective, is that it takes away all the silos, because it’s a way of linking the hospitals and long-term care to provide the best care to residents,” Taylor tells the Morning Report.

Of particular note is that the initiative will significantly reduce the number of hospital transfers, which frees up the beds there.

Allowing residents to remain in a familiar setting is also a better option, particularly for those who may be confused and disturbed at having to move to an unfamiliar environment.

“There’s nothing worse than to have our seniors sit in hallways on stretchers, not in the comfort of their own environment, and having more complex issues because they’re confused, disoriented or uncomfortable,” says Taylor.

In addition to enhanced care for residents, the telemedicine option offers educational opportunities for staff, in the form of archived webcasts, which can be accessed free of charge at any time.

“We’re looking at educational opportunities for staff at the click of a button,” says Taylor. “This certainly builds capacity and increases confidence for staff.”

The long-term care home is looking to eventually invite staff from other long-term care homes in the community to access these educational opportunities as well, with the goal of building the capacity of nurses within the larger community.

Weekly rounds with a hospital physician using the telemedicine equipment are slated to begin in January.

“We are very pleased and excited to have this whole opportunity, not only for us, but other people in the community,” says Taylor.

“We really want to provide a community of practice here at Cedarvale, so it’s not just us at Cedarvale but we open it up and then have so many more services available to our residents.”

Specialty Care-owned long-term care homes Bloomington Cove, Villa Leonardo Gambin and Bradford Valley are also participating in the telemedicine initiative with Southlake.

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