Virtual care for patients

To help support patient care and health care providers in the current COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom for Health care has been approved as a virtual care platform for use on an interim basis. Zoom for Health care enables clinicians to deliver health services, expertise and information in real time over distance, improving access and eliminating barriers to patient care across New Brunswick.

Zoom for Healthcare is a secure, web-based virtual care video conferencing platform. Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing and collaboration across mobile devices, desktops and telephones. The Department of Health has obtained Zoom for Healthcare which provides additional security measures to protect the privacy of personal health information being shared over internet channels. 

Individuals with complex respiratory conditions can now take advantage of an online form to generate their personal Respiratory Management Record. This Record can be provided by the individual and/or their support person(s) to medical professions outside of their circle of care to support best care outcomes.  

The Respiratory Management Record was developed under the guidance of doctors and respiratory therapists from the Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation and the community. 

You may wish to have some assistance from your respiratory therapist or respiratory care physician in completing this form: Personal Respiratory Management Record* .

*When completing this form, the information entered will not be stored anywhere. Once completed, a PDF of the information entered will be sent to you via email.  

Virtual care contributes to patient safety in many ways. It has kept Canadians safe during the pandemic by reducing their risk of contracting COVID-19 in crowded clinics and waiting rooms. Mental health support is available virtually for those who are considering self-harm. And e-prescribing through PrescribeIT® reduces transcription errors and the likelihood of fraudulent prescriptions.

GNB has conducted a thorough investigation (including a privacy review and threat risk examination) regarding the privacy and security of Zoom for Healthcare and is comfortable with the measures included in the health care-specific version of Zoom to protect user privacy. GNB will continue to monitor for privacy and security issues on an ongoing basis. 

The Department of Health has obtained Zoom for Healthcare, which provides additional security measures to protect the privacy of personal health information being shared over internet channels. These security measures include: 

• restricting Zoom to only processing personal information (PI) and Personal Health Information (PHI) for purposes strictly required to deliver the services
• disabling features like recording, copying chat text between meeting participants, sharing files between participants and others
• limiting the amount of personal information used when scheduling a meeting
• using a unique meeting ID for each virtual care session
• creating a secure site where authorized health-care providers and their patients or clients can communicate