Transition to Virtual Care Services during COVID-19 at Canadian Pain Clinics: Survey and Future Recommendations
Table 2
Postpandemic recommendations for virtual care services at pain clinics.
Key recommendations
(1) Clinics should provide a hybrid model of virtual and in-person care: Virtual care is feasible, sustainable, and of equal quality for most components of care and pain management. Some patients perform well having their initial consult in-person and then move to virtual care when desirable and feasible for both the patient and the healthcare provider
(2) Funding agencies need to increase support and provide grants to pain clinics: Provinces’ respective Ministries of Health or alternate funding agencies need to provide grants that will allow pain clinics to innovate and perform quality improvement assessments to better serve their patients virtually and in-person
(3) Patients should have the right to choose: Patients should be allowed to exercise personal preference to request and receive in-person care even if the treatment or care can be delivered virtually. Some patients will require in-person care and not every patient has a home situation conducive to receiving virtual care
(4) In-person care must remain for services involving experiential and therapeutic components that require one’s physical presence: Some components of care cannot be delivered virtually and require in-person care delivery. For example, physical examinations, auscultating patients during musculoskeletal assessments, medical interventions, aquatic therapy, or physical therapy
(5) Allow patients to access services in different provinces: If another province has a clinic or services with the needed expertise, patients should be allowed to receive virtual care remotely. In this way, pain care services can be spread geographically and utilized beyond provincial borders and the flagship pain centers. This change would improve pain care access and early intervention
(6) Training and investing in more interdisciplinary healthcare teams: Training more licensed psychologists, social workers, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists will help support pain clinic operations, expand rehabilitation services, and provide more generalized pain care to meet the demands of the population. Increased student recruitment for professional mental health programs in conjunction with more pain specialty training within training programs may help improve the availability and enhance virtual care delivery methods
