Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service will soon allow medical professionals to virtually scrub in and assist in surgical procedures with the addition of a new telesurgery platform.
It was recently announced that three CQHHS hospitals in Rockhampton, Gladstone, and Emerald will introduce the technology provided by Teladoc to “address barriers in surgical access and expertise.”
WHY IT MATTERS
“The most exciting thing about this is clinicians feeling supported,” said Christina McInally, telehealth coordinator and clinical nurse consultant at CQHHS. “They have someone to call and know that what they are doing is the right thing. They can learn from others, whether that is an urgent situation, a supervision, or education – it’s that collegial support.”
“Having the knowledge that any clinician could dial in to support a colleague and say ‘I’m going to be here for you, let’s get the patients cared for there’ means the clinicians are doing more and feeling more valuable to the local community,” added Dr Andrew Scott, a rural generalist and clinical director of Capricorn Coast Hospital.
However, according to McInally, what they saw as a major challenge in implementing the technology was also the providers themselves. “Surgeons like their hands in and on things, touching things.”
“[We have to convince them that] it’s okay that you can’t see, hear, or feel anything or put your hand in a wound full of blood and feel what’s going on in there, that you can just talk [the team] through,” she shared.
Nonetheless, CQHHS sees the telesurgery platform helping reduce the need for medical professionals to travel long distances to another hospital, as it enables them to provide live, virtual “over the shoulder” support, consultation, and specialist guidance.
As doctors can provide remote, timely decision support to local clinicians, this also reduces patient transfers, wait times, and their associated risks and costs. “The patient and family could avoid travel over several days and all the potential consequences that come from that. And as a result, there is a hospital that’s not bed-blocked,” stressed Dr Scott.
“If we can provide care in flexible and innovative ways, the patients will get the care sooner and are more likely to actually receive it, as opposed to them just not going in and then coming in later with advanced disease,” he further explained.
Meanwhile, the benefit of enhanced procedural collaboration offered by the telesurgery platform will also help retain their workforce, claimed McInally. “It is very hard to keep our workforce in a regional, rural area. A lot of hours, a lot of work, a lot of knowing stuff on your own. But people who know they have that [virtual] support will go a long, long way.”
There are over 4,500 staff working across four hospitals, 14 health centres, and two residential aged care facilities under CQHHS.
The platform is also expected to support the accelerated learning and training certification of CQHHS surgical residents and trainees, as it allows them to observe and engage in complex procedures through livestreaming and interactive features that simulate the surgical environment.
Additionally, the platform can also facilitate streamlined proctoring and credentialling processes for site accreditations.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
CQHHS began working with Teladoc to trial and set up the telesurgery platform late last year. But its use of telehealth and virtual care technologies has been ongoing for over five years now.
During the recent global pandemic, it developed 24/7 videoconference facilities that allowed the rural Emerald Hospital to access specialist services from Rockhampton Hospital in providing urgent care.
Last year, Rockhampton Hospital introduced two new telehealth services: one that connects patients to respiratory and sleep medicine specialists in Brisbane and the other that provides post-surgery support. Meanwhile, Emerald Hospital also launched last year a paediatric behaviour telehealth clinic.
CQHHS envisions seamless digital information access anywhere at any time in service delivery as part of its 2030 transformation strategy.
