The Alberta Telestewardship Network: Building a platform to enable capacity building in antimicrobial stewardship-results of an initial pilot study

• Published in: Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie médicale et l'infectiologie Canada Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 90 - 93
• Main Authors: Jelinski, Dana, Julien, Danielle, Cook, Sandra, Harris, Sabrina, Logan, Timothy, Sabuda, Deana, Dersch-Mills, Deonne, Wong, Catherine, Webster, Sara, Constantinescu, Cora, Hoang, Holly, Conly, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada University of Toronto Press 01.03.2023
• Subjects: Brief Report; Design and construction; Long-term care of the sick; Medical personnel; Mobile devices; Strategic planning (Business); Surveys; Alberta; Canada; antimicrobial stewardship; infectious disease; telehealth; telestewardship; virtual care
• DOI: 10.3138/jammi-2022-0033
• ISSN: 2371-0888

Resources to improve antimicrobial stewardship (AS) are limited, but a telestewardship platform can enable capacity building and scalability. The Alberta Telestewardship Network (ATeleNet) was designed to focus on outreach across the province of Alberta, Canada, and facilitate AS activities. Outreach occurred virtually between pharmacists and physicians in hospital and long-term care settings throughout Alberta via secure, enterprise video conferencing software on both desktop and mobile devices. We used a quantitative questionnaire adapted from the telehealth usability questionnaire to capture the health provider's experience during each session. The questionnaire consisted of 39 questions, and a 5-point Likert scale was used to assess the degree of agreement and collate responses into a descriptive analysis. A total of 33 pilot consultations were completed between July 6, 2020 and December 15, 2021. The majority (22, 85%) of respondents agreed that video conference-based virtual sessions are an acceptable means to provide health care and that they were able to express themselves effectively to other health care professionals (23, 88%). Respondents agreed the system was simple to use (23, 96%), and that they could become productive quickly using the system (23, 88%). Overall, 24 (92%) respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with the virtual care platform. We implemented and evaluated a telehealth consultation and collaborative care service between AS providers at multiple centres. AHS has since prioritized similar workflows, including access to specialists in acute care, as part of their virtual health strategy. Evaluation results will be shared with provincial stakeholders for further strategic planning and deployment.