Grant: Team Grant: Strengthening the Health Workforce for System Transformation

Not having enough healthcare workers in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities is a major problem for governments and citizens alike. In British Columbia (BC), two promising innovative healthcare programs link health professionals through digital technologies such as mobile phones or computers to treat patients (virtual care) alongside local health providers in communities (in-person care). The two "hybrid" programs are the Indigenous-led Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS) and Real-Time Virtual Support (RTVS) programs. CSFS uses virtual physician care when in-person support is not immediately available. RTVS is available for rural communities throughout BC and allows rural healthcare providers to connect virtually with on-call specialists and general practitioners. RTVS helps ensure patient access to primary care, mental health, maternity, and pediatric consultations, provides local healthcare providers with instant 24/7 support from their colleagues and keeps emergency rooms open. RTVS has been shown to assist local providers with work-life balance knowing that virtual providers are available when needed. Although RTVS is available throughout BC, not all communities have used the program yet. Our research seeks to understand the barriers and facilitators to implementing hybrid care, how to make this approach culturally safe, flexible, and able to meet the needs of communities, while improving rural healthcare workforce retention and recruitment. Through interviews with healthcare providers and local community members, and both statistical and cost analysis, we plan to identify the key ingredients of hybrid care required to build community trust, increase access to health services, and recruit and retain critical healthcare providers in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities. The learnings from this study will be used to develop service delivery guidelines and health policy for hybrid health care in rural and remote communities across Canada.