First virtual hospital in N.B. officially opens at Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre
Moncton, November 14, 2018 – Vitalité Health Network today officially opened the first virtual hospital in New Brunswick, at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre (UHC), with a number of guests and dignitaries in attendance.
This innovative initiative offers an alternative to hospitalization when the latter is not required.
This new care delivery mode is an original way of providing services to patients who need specific tests or procedures but who do not need to be hospitalized. “This innovative initiative offers an alternative to hospitalization when the latter is not required. It improves the quality and coordination of our services and prevents hospital beds from being used inappropriately. The patient presents during the day to receive care and then returns home after their care has been administered,” explained Gilles Lanteigne, President and CEO of Vitalité Health Network. Mr. Lanteigne went on to mention that the project is an initiative under the Network’s 2017–2020 Strategic Plan, focused on modernizing and transforming the health care system.
The service is for patients age 16 and over who are medically stable and whose state of health allows them to travel alone or with a companion. The target clientele needs rapid tests or procedures that involve spending less than 12 hours within the hospital setting.
The services in question will be delivered from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., by a team made up of medical specialists and two nurses. These services will include:
- CT scans;
- Various X-rays;
- Biopsies;
- Colonoscopies;
- Gastroscopies.
Dr. Rémi Leblanc, who initiated this project, is confident of the positive outcome of this new initiative. "The virtual hospital makes it possible to evaluate patients externally at the same speed as in the hospital. It is an alternative to hospitalization that will certainly contribute to the improvement of patient care as well as to relieve the urgency and the different floors."
For now, the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC in Moncton is the only facility offering a virtual hospital. However, this concept may be offered at other Network hospitals after the Moncton services undergo a break-in period and evaluation.
From left to right : Micheline Gagnon, Registered Nurse; Renelle Thibodeau, Director of General Practice, Internal Medicine and Palliative Care; Shirley Avoine, Nurse Manager; Joanne Roy, Vice President of Clinical Services; Dr Rémi LeBlanc; and Murielle LeBlanc Gallant, Registered Nurse.
