How a virtual emergency room doctor saved a life from afar – CTV
Jan. 11, 2024
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – The 12-bed hospital in New-Wes-Valley, N.L. – population 2,000 – found itself at the centre of a heated debate about staff shortages in rural health care when the province signed a contract to staff its emergency department virtually.
Mayor Mike Tiller, a paramedic, is not completely sold on the idea of having doctors hundreds of kilometres away responsible for urgent care of his town’s residents, but a recent experience has convinced him the virtual ER can save lives.
Tiller says a patient who came to the Dr. Y.K. Jeon Kittiwake Health Centre in cardiac distress was able to get a life-saving injection thanks to a virtual emergency doctor, who teamed with on-site health professionals such as nurses or paramedics to provide treatment. The injection broke up blood clots and kept the patient alive so he could be transferred to a larger hospital in Gander, about an hour and a half away, and then airlifted to St. John’s, Tiller said in a recent interview.
Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/how-a-virtual-emergency-room-doctor-saved-a-life-from-afar-1.6721063
