This study indicates that video telehealth is an effective mechanism for delivering nursing and other health services to rural/remote communities and can impact positively on the quality of health care. The integration of telehealth practice can enhance the coordination, organisation and implementation of health care services.
Opioid use affects up to 30% of pregnancies in Northwestern Ontario. Health care providers in Northwestern Ontario have varying comfort levels providing care to substance-involved pregnant women. Furthermore, health care practitioners, social service agencies and community groups in Northwestern Ontario often work in isolation with little multidisciplinary communication and collaboration. This article describes two workshops that brought together health and social service providers, community organizations, as well as academic institutions and professional organizations involved in the care of substance-involved pregnant and parenting women. The initial workshop presented best practices and local experience in the management of opioid dependence in pregnancy while the second workshop asked participants to apply a local Indigenous worldview to the implementation of clinical, research and program priorities that were identified in the first workshop. Consensus statements developed by workshop participants identified improved transitions in care, facilitated access to buprenorphine treatment, stable funding models for addiction programs and a focus on Indigenous-led programming. Participants identified a critical need for a national strategy to address the effects of opioid use in pregnancy from a culturally safe, trauma-informed perspective that takes into account the health and well-being of the woman, her infant, her family and her community.KEY WORDS: Opiate dependence; pregnancy; Indigenous health services; rural population La traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.
The objective of this work was to investigate end user satisfaction and perceived efficacy on the part of client physicians for teleoncology services in Northwestern Ontario. A survey of 98 referring physicians from 17 remote communities in Northwestern Ontario was undertaken primarily to determine overall client physician satisfaction with the teleoncology process. The survey also investigated perceived problems and explored potential solutions. Overall client physician satisfaction was high for the majority of response fields. However, more than 50% of surveyed physicians felt that some aspects of the teleoncology process could be improved with an emphasis on more timely communication of interview results, continuity of care, and improving patients comfort level with the technologies involved. The success of this service is evidenced by its exponential growth since the original introduction in 2001. Ninety-eight percent of referring physicians would continue to use the teleoncology service process.
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