Surgery is often a confusing and overwhelming process for patients. Patients are learning complex pre- and post-surgery instructions, managing anxiety and dealing with stress – often for the first time.
Providers often feel as if they are sending patients into a blackhole, especially after discharge.
Although providers hope for patients to have a straightforward recovery, the reality is that:
These challenges are heightened during COVID-19 as Ontario hospitals face bed capacity issues and are under pressure to decrease the surgical backlog and discharge surgical patients sooner - all while considering patient safety.
Throughout the pandemic, cases in Ontario overwhelmed hospitals leading to the suspension of a wide range of non-emergency surgeries to spare beds for these patients. In fact, at the peak of the third wave nearly half of Ontario’s ICU capacity consisted of COVID-19 patients.³ Hospitals intend to boost operating capacity and are exploring tools such as Surgical Remote Monitoring solutions as they tackle the surgical backlog, which is expected to reach over 400,000 surgical procedures by September 2021.⁴
Surgical Remote Monitoring represents a scalable way for providers to stay connected with patients pre and post-operatively, thereby increasing confidence for earlier discharge and improving patient safety across the surgical experience.
Many Ontario hospitals have successfully implemented Surgical Remote Monitoring with excellent results, including:
In this white paper, we will walk you through the nuts and bolts of implementing a Surgical Remote Monitoring program to achieve similar results to the organizations above.
1 Tevis SE, Kennedy GD. Postoperative complications and implications on patient-centered outcomes. J Surg Res. 2013;181(1):106-113.doi:10.1016/j.jss.2013.01.032
2 Wiseman JT, Guzman AM, Fernandes-Taylor S, Engelbert TL, Saunders RS, Kent KC. General and vascular surgery readmissions: a systematic review. J Am Coll Surg. 2014;219(3):552-69.e2. doi:10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2014.05.007
3 CBC News. (2021, July 28). Ontario to Run Hospitals at 115% Capacity to Clear Pandemic Surgical Backlog. https://www.cbc.ca/news/cana-da/toronto/covid-19-ontario-july-28-2021-surgical-backlog-recovery-1.6120588
4 CityNews. (2021, May 10). Ontario Hospitals Could Spend More Than Three Years Clearing Surgical Backlogs. https://ottawa.citynews.ca/coronavirus-covid-19-local-news/ontario-hospitals-could-spend-more-than-three-years-clearing-surgical-back-logs-3766360
5 SeamlessMD. (2021). Surgical Remote Monitoring to Reduce ED Visits and Readmissions During COVID-19. [Case study]. https://seamless.md/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SeamlessMD-Thunder-Bay-Surgical-Remote-Monitoring-Case-Study.pdf
6 SeamlessMD. (2019). Reducing Readmissions Using Remote Patient Monitoring. [Case study]. https://seamless.md/wp-content/up-loads/2019/04/CaseStudy-SeamlessMD-Sinai.pdf
7 SeamlessMD. (2019) Reducing 30-day ER visits for Thoracic Surgery. [Case study]. https://seamless.md/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/StJo-es-Case-Study.pdf
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