Urgent care goes virtual at William Osler

As part of their commitment to providing safe, convenient healthcare options for urgent medical issues, William Osler Health Systems have recently gone live with the Savience virtual urgent care platform.

The virtual solution supports members of the public who need to access their local Emergency Department service and local care providers recognised as Ontario Health Team partners, such as Nurse Practitioners visiting residents in long-term facilities.

The virtual urgent care (VUC) solution has been designed in conjunction with patients and healthcare providers to help ensure it is as accessible and easy to use as is practically possible.

William Osler’s virtual consultations are a mixture of zoom video and audio calls that take place between service users and clinicians. Hospital staff track and initiate consultations direct from their existing Clarity patient flow dashboard, which in turn is fully integrated back into William Osler’s Meditech EMR.

Users (including those booking on behalf of someone else e.g., a family member) access the service from a link on the William Osler website and are subsequently onboarded by completing an online intake questionnaire. This part of the process collects information on the patient’s presenting complaint and importantly, using the responses provided can screen out patients who may need more immediate attention, by advising them to call 911 etc.

Patients meeting the hospital’s virtual visit criteria are then presented with the option to book their own appointment at a time convenient for themselves. Meanwhile, William Osler can manage the schedule and availability of the urgent care service based on their own staff resources.

Upon booking their appointment, patients receive a text or email notification confirming their consultation details and the specific information needed to join the virtual visit e.g., zoom call link. Patients can also view their appointment details on the booking system.

As patients make themselves available in the virtual waiting room, hospital staff can review the information that has been collected as part of the booking process and initiate the consultation with the service user. After the consultation has ended, the Clarity dashboard provides clinical staff with the option to complete a visit outcome form, which is then stored against that patient attendance ready for integration back into the local EMR.

Further reading: Virtual Urgent Care appointment leads to sight-saving surgery