Learning From a Regional Approach: Integration to Scale, Spread, and Sustain Virtual Urgent Care

Abstract

While new offerings of virtual urgent care services from peer hospitals faltered after initial provincial pilot funding lapsed, our 3 regional academic health sciences centers decided to partner to enhance patient access, achieve efficiencies, and support long-term sustainability. Utilizing the Development Model for Integrated Care framework, we progressed through the 4 phases to ensure joint success and high-quality care: (1) initiative and design phase—individual parallel projects but with strong collaborations and broad stakeholder engagement; (2) experimental and execution phase—continuous quality improvement approach for governance, policies, and processes; (3) expansion and monitoring phase—weekly leadership touchpoints on key performance indicators; and (4) consolidation and transformation phase—sustainability through ongoing funding.

The Transformative Power of Virtual Hospitals for Revolutionising Healthcare Delivery

“…Additionally, by optimising resource utilisation, virtual hospitals have the potential to reduce overall healthcare costs, making healthcare more accessible and affordable for patients. The ability to scale efficiently and optimise resources is a key advantage of virtual hospitals, contributing to their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in delivering healthcare services [ 99 ]. Moreover, virtual hospitals have the potential to advance telemedicine training and education [ 100 , 101 ].…”