With the addition of a new physician and delegate team at Joyceville Institution this week, eConsult is now readily available at all eight Correctional Service Canada (CSC) facilities in Ontario.
The Ontario eConsult Program partnered with CSC in September 2018 to improve access to specialist care for the inmate population. With approximately 7,700 adults in custody at the province’s eight federal facilities, the goal of the initiative was to increase equity and timeliness of care, reduce patient transfers to community medical centres, decrease costs, and increase safety and security.
At least one physician and delegate team is registered at each CSC facility in Ontario. In the first 100 days of 2019, eConsult usage by CSC physicians grew by 333% over the last 100 days of 2018. Between Jan. 1 and Jun. 30, 2019, 60 eConsult requests were sent to managed service groups. The top three most requested specialties were:
- Dermatology (34%)
- Cardiology – Electrophysiology (20%)
- Hematology (10%)