VEMSA offers virtual round-the-clock emergency specialist support for residents of aged care facilities, providing peace of mind for your clinical staff, residents, and their families.
Nursing staff of aged care facilities often face challenging clinical situations when caring for their residents. The complexities of aged care combined with the 24/7 nature of a residential facility mean nurses are expected to manage medical concerns and crises after hours, without timely access to the resident’s usual GP, and to make time-sensitive decisions about escalation and hospitalisation. VEMSA’s services are designed exactly to support these moments.
Virtual Emergency Medicine Services Australia is an innovative emergency telehealth service connecting healthcare providers and patients directly to experienced emergency medicine physicians for all urgent and non-life threatening medical concerns. We are much more than a simple on-call GP and go beyond the usual virtual ED services often found with other telehealth providers.
VEMSA is:
We are dedicated to providing prompt, accessible, and quality healthcare for all Australians, including those of residential aged care homes and direct to the public. We believe this improves healthcare outcomes through timely access to expert medical advice while helping to relieve some of the burden on hospitals and physical emergency departments where clinically appropriate.
Partnering with VEMSA means your facility gains 24-hour immediate access to an emergency medicine specialist, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Instead of second-guessing symptoms, diagnoses, medication adjustments, or hospital transfers, get clarity and advice on next steps from a VEMSA emergency doctor within minutes of contacting the service.
All your residents can be pre-registered into the VEMSA system, with secure storage of medical histories, medication lists, and Medicare/DVA details, to streamline your consultation process. For the consultation you will need a device – phone or computer – with a camera and web browser with internet connection.
After each consultation, the emergency specialist will provide a consultation summary to your nurses and any visiting GPs involved in your patient’s care.
The VEMSA Virtual Emergency Support Model for residential aged care homes includes:
Get streamlined and priority access to a senior emergency medicine physician (FACEM) for support for all urgent, non-life threatening medical presentations for the patients under your care at any time of the day or night.
Whether your nursing staff have a query about medication side effects, need an updated prescription, or are concerned about an overdose, our emergency specialists can provide expert input. If your facility is registered with BestMed, we can provide prescriptions directly via this platform to streamline the process.
Our clinicians collaborate with yours, sharing clinical advice and discussing a management strategy to optimise positive health outcomes for your patients long after your virtual consultation has concluded.
One of the services that sets VEMSA apart from other virtual EDs is our ability to provide ongoing review of your patients. Our emergency specialists can review pathology or imaging results, reassess symptoms, and monitor the effects of treatment as required to ensure your patient’s wellbeing stays on track.
A growing number of independent specialists around Australia have chosen to partner with VEMSA, with a commitment to offer consultations within days or weeks rather than months. Our Australia-wide virtual network of specialists include cardiologists, respiratory physicians, and neuropsychiatrists.
In addition to determining whether your patients require escalation to care in a physical hospital, our emergency specialists can coordinate the hospital admission process and facilitate the clinical handover with hospital staff, removing this administrative burden from your nurses.
VEMSA’s services are fully bulk billed to residents of your facility with a valid Medicare or DVA card, with no out-of-pocket fees. Referral to a non-FACEM specialist on the VEMSA network, if required, may attract a charge determined by the specialist independently.
