You are a Nurse Practitioner who has educated yourself about Canada’s digital divide through personal research and interactions with your own patients. Now that you have a grasp on the source of the problem, you begin to search for solutions. You scour the internet for various services that will provide your patients with access to devices, internet services, and provide technology teachings. Welcome to Part 2 of our Virtual Care and Equity series …
HiQuiPs: Virtual Care and Equity Part 1- Introduction to Digital Inequity
You are a Nurse Practitioner with a practice in a COVID-19 hotspot. The pandemic has forced you to transition into providing virtual care. You are wrapping up your last telemedicine visit of the morning. Your patient is an 80-year-old Chinese female with a possible skin infection. Her granddaughter is with her and translates for you as you run through your HPI questions. Your patient’s granddaughter has a smart phone, and she positions the …
HiQuiPs: Expert’s Corner – Dr. Aikta Verma on Quality Improvement Leadership
HiQuiPs is back with another installment of Expert’s Corner! For this post, we had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Aikta Verma about quality improvement (QI) and quality culture in the Emergency Department (ED). Dr. Verma is the Chief of the Department of Emergency Services at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She completed a Masters of Health Sciences in Health Administration with a specific interest in QI. She is also an Assistant Professor at …
HiQuiPs: Introduction to Virtual Care – Virtual Processes
As you begin envisioning virtual care in your hospital, you begin to wonder about the details of your program. How do you funnel patients to where they need to be, and how do you ensure that patients receive the care they need? Furthermore, how do you ensure that these processes are cohesive and well structured? Welcome to the second part of the HiQuiPs introduction to virtual care series! In this post, we will …
HiQuiPs: Introduction to Virtual Care – General Principles
In late 2020 and early 2021, several hospitals implemented “virtual ED” programs as COVID-19 cases increasingly strained and threatened to overwhelm the healthcare system. You may be wondering what virtual care really is, and why it is becoming so prevalent in Canada. You may also wonder if this is a program that can be of benefit in your practice. In this month’s HiQuiPs post, we will introduce virtual care, its perceived need, and …
Expert’s Corner – Dr. Eddy Lang on Quality Improvement and Healthcare
Welcome to another HiQuiPs Expert Corner. In this edition, we asked Dr. Eddy Lang three questions about Quality Improvement (QI) given his impressive track record of system improvements. Dr. Eddy Lang is the current Department Head of Emergency Medicine and a Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. In addition, he serves as the Clinical Department Head for Emergency Medicine and a senior researcher at Alberta Health Services, Calgary zone. …