Virtual Emergency Medicine wins second award
- Virtual Emergency Medicine (VEM) won the 2023 Moore Australia (WA) Award for ‘Best Practice in Collaboration Between Government and any other Organisation’ at the 2023 Institute of Public Administration Australia WA Awards.
- VEM is an innovative initiative between South Metropolitan Health Service and St John WA.
- It is the second award VEM has received after winning the Council of Ambulance Authorities’ (CAA) 2022 award for Excellence in Patient Care.
The collaboration behind Virtual Emergency Medicine (VEM) has been recognised at the 2023 Institute of Public Administration Australia WA (IPAA WA) Awards.
VEM won the 2023 Moore Australia (WA) Award for ‘Best Practice in Collaboration Between Government and any other Organisation’.
VEM is an innovative initiative between South Metropolitan Health Service’s Fiona Stanley Hospital emergency department (ED) and Kaartdijin Innovation team, and St John WA.
It is the second award VEM has received after winning the Council of Ambulance Authorities’ (CAA) 2022 award for Excellence in Patient Care.
It was the first service of its kind in Australia and has been revolutionising emergency patient care by improving ambulance and ED flow since its initial test phase in February 2021.
VEM allows St John WA paramedics to initiate a remote consultation for non-Priority 1 adult patients in the South Metropolitan area, with the aim of fast tracking them to the appropriate hospital ward – away from ED, discharging on scene or diverting them to another suitable service.
The Fiona Stanley Hospital VEM command centre teleconferences with paramedics, or conducts video calls when possible, to assess and triage patients while enroute to the hospital, or increasingly at the scene.
VEM led to the development of the WA Virtual Emergency Department (WAVED) which gives low acuity patients the option of being seen virtually in the comfort of their own home when safe and appropriate to do so, rather than waiting in an ED.
