An evidence-based program for rural surgical and obstetrical networks.

An evidence-based program for rural surgical and obstetrical networks. Rural Remote Health. 2018 Dec;18(4):4921 Authors: Iglesias S, Kornelsen J Abstract CONTEXT: Over the past 25 years, the attrition of small volume rural surgery programs across Western Canada has been significant and sustained. The 'Joint position paper on rural surgery and operative delivery' (JPP) offers a consensus policy framework for the sustainability of rural surgical programs by nesting them within larger regional programs. The many recommendations in the JPP coalesce around the recognition that surgical care should be provided as close to home as possible. To achieve this, surgical care should be delivered within rural and regional surgical programs integrated into well-functioning networks staffed by generalist specialist surgeons trained across surgical disciplines and family physicians with enhanced surgical skills (FPESS). ISSUES: There are important issues to be addressed in the creation of these networks, not the least of which is the sometimes challenging relationships between the stakeholders in these networks and skepticism about the training of FPESS and the safety and quality of low volume surgical programs. Relationships extend from the patient-provider nexus to include interprofessional relationships and those between the pentagram partners (patients/communities, care providers, administrators, researchers and policymakers). Equally im...
Source: Rural and Remote Health - Category: Rural Health Tags: Rural Remote Health Source Type: research