Introduced in the COVID\u002D19 pandemic\u0027s early days to ease pressure on hospitals, Renfrew County\u0027s Virtual Triage and Assessment Centre (VTAC) has received permanent provincial funding to continue.
The program has evolved to become a hybrid model of care allowing county residents to call a 1-800 number and speak to someone in primary care the same day, and also to be referred to paramedics for assessment or an in-home visit.
The program has “significantly reduced pressure on emergency departments and on 911 by allowing an alternative,” said Mike Nolan, chief paramedic and director of emergency services for Renfrew County. “VTAC makes sure no one is suffering in silence and has easy access to the care they need,” Nolan said. “We pioneered this layered model of care and that is what the province has recognized in giving it permanent funding.”
Since launching in March 2020, the program has provided almost 80,000 family physician virtual assessments, more than 70,000 paramedic on-site assessments, and more than 5,500 paramedic home visits. Each month, the program handles 5,000 calls, 3,000 assessments and helps divert 1,000 patients from hospital emergency departments.Article content
Approximately 30,000 residents of Renfrew County, or 28 per cent of its population, have no family physician or alternative primary-care provider. Up to 80 per cent of the VTAC family physician assessments are to these residents.“This is an exceptional program and I am pleased the funding has been continued,” MPP for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke John Yakabuski said in a release. The program, he said, “has continually demonstrated its value and that it deserves permanent funding.
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