2021 Agenda

Understanding rural health issues remains paramount if we are to make a difference in the lives of rural individuals and their communities. The rural context is often described as vulnerable and at a deficit. What can we learn from rural health research programs that support the strength and resiliency of rural communities and peoples?

Key Session Takeaways include:

• Engage with rural community members to address their health-related questions
• Build capacity of health care staff and community members to enhance opportunities to conduct research
• Learn about the current policy environment and its impact on the uptake of research findings on rural health issues

This 20-minute session is a networking event that will provide participants with the chance to meet virtually to engage in a guided conversation.

Rural healthcare providers are challenged with limited resources but mandated to deliver the same level of care. Leverage best practices in rural healthcare to:

Some of the key discussion topics will include:

• Improve patient flow and resource allocation
• Create partnerships to leverage important resources outside your organization
• Build capacity with virtual care and technology already in place

Most healthcare providers experience difficulties in achieving adequate or optimal staff, but rural hospitals traditionally face more difficulties. However, the challenges are not insurmountable. Take a deep dive into how organizations are:

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Engaging with staff to ensure a high level of care
• Building resiliency and mitigating burnout even with lower staffing levels
• Recruiting essential senior staff and engaging local millennials

Due to the unique socio-political environment that exists in rural and northern communities with critical incidents, it is essential to prepare not only in-hospital communication plans, but also to create and foster relationships that will enable information delivery to the community in a rapid, clear, and controlled manner. Through effective early planning and the building of key relationships, you can prepare your community and hospital to succeed in the information battlespace.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Leverage key community media contacts in your communication plan to build information capacity
• Test and implement communication strategies that enable your local community health-information network to succeed in times of crisis
• Learn the basics of disaster communication and planning with key pitfalls to avoid

Mental health awareness is gaining more attention as it moves out of the shadows, meaning more patients are seeking help. With aboriginal youth 5-6 times more likely to die by suicide, and Inuit youth 11 times more likely, mental health is a crisis for rural and remote communities. As the first point of contact, it is fundamental that front line staff be thoroughly educated in how to respond to a variety of conditions and scenarios. Determine how to develop:

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Protocols to recognize and respond to mental health and addiction needs quickly
• Timely access to key services to ensure help is available
• Remote mental health care that takes advantage of all possible treatment options

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre’s (TBRHSC) Regional Critical Care Response (RCCR) Program was established in 2015 to provide access to real-time, evidence-informed, critical care medicine using an inter-professional care team. RCCR functions include: resuscitative support, early stabilization of patients, early goal-directed therapy, and facilitating patient transfers resulting in decreased transport times. The RCCR program supports small and rural hospitals and remote nursing stations by allowing them to maintain specific patients within their communities with the assistance of clinical experts using the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN). RCCR provides regional leadership empowering healthcare providers to afford equitable, quality critical care services to every resident of northwestern Ontario. In this presentation, the speakers will:

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Highlight the purpose, establishment and expansion of the RCCR program
• Give a high-level review of funding and organizational financial impact of the program
• Highlight the overall effect of the program on quality health improvement

In this session, the speaker will present their data and patient outcomes, highlighting how their rural hospital and community prepared and responded to COVID-19. Some of the topics covered will be hospital capacity, transport and telemedicine considerations, human resources, relationships with the community and government officials, as well as
partnerships with other stakeholders and resources.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Challenges rural hospitals face in responding to high impact pandemics and how they were overcome
• Methods in which the response to the COVID-19 pandemic differed between rural and urban settings
• Evidenced-based strategies rural hospitals can deploy to prepare and respond to future high impact pandemics

Dr. Rourke will present contrasting visions of a reality-based dystopian future and a possibilities-based utopian future that will challenge both pessimists and optimists.

Key Session Takeaways include:

• Participants will consider major challenges facing Rural and Northern Health Care in Canada
• Participants will envision how the future Rural and Northern Health Care in Canada might evolve
• Participants will reflect on actions they can do to improve the future Rural and Northern Health Care in Canada