{"id":345043,"date":"2025-12-14T16:50:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/345043\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T16:50:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:50:43","slug":"four-hospitals-in-b-c-s-interior-launching-virtual-emergency-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/345043\/","title":{"rendered":"Four hospitals in B.C.\u2019s Interior launching virtual emergency care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\tBy Staff<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted December 10, 2025 3:00 pm<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUpdated December 11, 2025 9:55 pm\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>Patients seeking <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/emergency-care\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">emergency care<\/a> at four hospitals in British Columbia\u2019s Interior may now be seen by a doctor working virtually in a pilot project aimed at modernizing rural health services.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765485674_689_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Interior Health authority says in a statement the pilot will be used in hospital emergency departments in Lillooet, Clearwater, Nakusp and Princeton, three of which have been recently closed periodically because of staffing shortages.<\/p>\n<p>It says the care teams will begin the new model a few nights a week, while continuing with in-person care on other evenings, but the authority says that will stretch to seven evenings a week starting in the new year.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the pilot, a doctor will provide in-person care at one facility, while offering virtual support at three other emergency departments, and an emergency nurse will determine the level of care needed for those departments that don\u2019t have doctors on-site.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Telemedicine helping rural Canadians reach family doctors'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6Tu-VIRTUAL_CARE_web.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:47<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTelemedicine helping rural Canadians reach family doctors\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11576745\/wea-prairies-cold\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765731041_76_d1e8e7f538dfbe8e3914e59167960c21b7c18a40dcfe946b7e4cdd0c3042bdde.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCold warnings across the Prairies forecast wind-chill temperatures near -45 C\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11577270\/sydney-bondi-beach-terror-attack-jewish-holiday-event\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/bondi-beach.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Act of evil\u2019: Shooting at Sydney Jewish holiday event declared terror attack\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The statement says for life-threatening emergencies, an in-person physician remains on standby for each community.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/healthiq.jpg\" alt=\"Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n<p>Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Interior Health president Sylvia Weir says in the statement that the soft rollout gives the care teams and patients time to get familiar with the process and share their feedback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatient safety remains our key focus, and that is why we continue to approach the modernization of rural emergency services with care and consideration,\u201d Weir says.<\/p>\n<p>The hospital in Nakusp has been using a similar program for two nights a week.<\/p>\n<p>Interior Health says the sharing of physician coverage over multiple sites allows for a \u201cmore sustainable work life\u201d for health professionals, as well as collaboration between rural doctors and better access to expert care for rural residents.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Health<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Staff The Canadian Press Posted December 10, 2025 3:00 pm Updated December 11, 2025 9:55 pm 1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[150520,49,48,150519,150521,84,5432,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-345043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-b-c-interior","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-emergency-care","12":"tag-emergency-rooms","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-health-care","15":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}