Essay BUS850 – Business Communications Report Writing – Business Management Assignment help

Assignment Task 

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on our healthcare system over the past year. In addition to increased demand and stress for in patient and emergency rooms in hospitals, it has also increased the amount of closures for outpatient clinics. Outpatient care has largely been changed towards a more virtual and phone model of care for the majority of patients. This has also been an adjustment to the physicians and staff having to work from home offices and limit their trips into the office. With the ongoing pandemic not looking to have an end in sight, we need to address the fact that this virtual and phone patient care needs to be something that continues to be incorporated into practice for the foreseeable future, even if or when things return to normal.

Virtual Healthcare
 

According to a study conducted by BMI Health Services, the use of telemedicine services, or virtual based healthcare, is one of the safest ways to continue to conduct healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic and aid in minimizing the risk of spreading the disease (Monaghesh & Hajizadeh, 2020). Virtual healthcare reduces the amount of face-to-face contact between patients and physicians therefore reducing the risk of spreading infectious diseases. Without even considering the COVID-19 pandemic, patients see their doctor to maintain their health and also when they are acutely ill. Patients that are acutely ill, for example having the seasonal flu, it makes sense to allow these patients to be seen by a physician virtually in order to keep the physician safe from contracting any possible disease from the patients, and vice versa. Virtual based healthcare has been around for a number of years already in Ontario. It has effectively helped bring healthcare to people in Ontario that live in Northern rural and remote communities
 

(O'Gorman & Hogenbirk, 2016). People living in Northern Ontario face a number of roadblocks when it comes to healthcare, including less access to doctors in general, transportation and travel issues due to weather and location, and limited access to specialist in their area. Ontario Telehealth Network is a
network that uses video conferencing to provide patient access to doctors and specialists anywhere in Ontario (Ontario Telehealth Network). The benefits of offering OTN to patients is they have better access to healthcare and physicians, without having to leave their home. Another benefit of OTN is that patients that have to travel a long distance, are acutely sick, or have mobility issues are more likely to attend more visits with their physicians if they do not have to travel to see them. With the use of OTN growing in Ontario it makes sense to incorporate this type of patient care model as a normal process for all medical offices.