New Brunswick’s health minister is eyeing a Northern Ontario pilot project that allowed eligible non-urgent ER patients to wait comfortably at home and receive text messages when it was the best time to go in.
The virtual home waiting room tried at the Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie could decrease “unacceptable” wait times and improve the experience of patients, Dr. John Dornan says.
“This is something that we could and should and will be looking at,” Dornan said when asked about such a project for New Brunswick.
A plan could also be coming “within weeks” to alleviate overcrowding caused by hospital beds being taken up by people waiting for nursing home beds or other long-term-care placements, Dornan suggested.
WATCH | ‘This is something that we could and should and will be looking at’:
Health minister mulls at-home waiting for non-urgent ER patients
Dr. John Dornan likes the idea of the virtual waiting room tried out at a northern Ontario hospital, where certain ER patients can wait comfortably at home and receive a text message when it’s time to go to hospital to be triaged and registered.
It comes as Horizon and Vitalité health networks both say their ERs made it through the holiday resource crunch without any major problems, thanks in part to patients with non-urgent ailments avoiding ERs when possible.
Now, faced with a surge in flu cases and ongoing overcapacity issues,
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