Quebec to free up hospital beds by giving patients virtual care at home

Quebec is trying out an innovative approach to free up beds in medical facilities: starting next year, some patients in Montreal and Quebec City will be able to receive hospital care at home.

Known as 'Care Everywhere,' the Jewish General Hospital became the first in Canada to send patients home and connect them virtually to the hospital last year.

 "So, by 2026, we want to deploy 34 home hospitalization projects in all regions of Quebec," said Sonia Belanger, Quebec's junior health minister.

Belanger announced a $40 million investment Monday to get the program off the ground.

The goal is to take pressure off overburdened hospitals.

Patients that are stable but still require observation will be sent home with an iPad linked wirelessly to sensors measuring vital signs that can be monitored remotely from the hospital.

"I think that it is a good idea that we have been promoting for a number of years now," said patients' rights advocate Paul Brunet. "It's about freeing hospital beds when patients do not need urgent attention."

While Brunet applauded the move, groups supporting caregivers fear the care will fall on loved ones.

"For sure, they will have to take care of this person, probably take days off from their job, so missing salary -- and even more than just the money, it's the pressure and the culpability that's going to go over them again," said Nathalie Deziel of Caregivers of Montreal.

The program will be voluntary. Patients who don't want to be monitored from home won't have to be.

Belanger said home care patients will still be in regular contact with their health-care team and will be in constant contact with a nurse by phone.