Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a global phenomenon, resulting in admitted patients in the ED, and new patients waiting in the ED waiting rooms to be seen. Meanwhile, a significant portion of these patients in the waiting room could potentially be managed away from ED. How can telehealth and digital health assist in decongesting ED and support patients at their times of urgent needs? This presentation will discuss about the provincial approach the province of British Columbia, Canada takes in tackling this issue through the 8-1-1 virtual service. This pan-provincial digital front door aspires to improve patient experiences, reduce ED input volume, and improve patient safety through their health system journeys for optimizing patients and health system's outcome. We will discuss the evidence to date on this 8-1-1 virtual care service, and how it integrates with the health system as a whole to alleviate the ED crisis in BC, and this line's future directions. We will then explore whether there may be opportunities of synergy between Hong Kong and Canada on utilizing such a system in our respective contexts.
