The Provincial Virtual Crisis Service (PVCS) will expand its operations to now provide urgent telepsychiatry consults to all rural sites into the evening. This will take effect on September 29, 2025.

Expanded Model description

• PVCS will expand psychiatry coverage to be 24/7
• Referral sites will continue with current practice, contacting VECTRS 24/7 for urgent MH requests for psychiatric support
• The model used in current daytime hours (0800-1700) will now extend to 0800-2200
  • PVCS psychiatry will perform urgent assessments to all rural sites 0800-2200, 7 days/week
  • PVCS psychiatry will provide phone support to VECTRS and referral sites 2200-0800; sites requesting urgent call backs can expect a return call from PVCS; if no call back is required, VECTRS will notify the subsequent PVCS day team of the pending consult request

Additional details

• There is no rural MH flow specialist in the evenings to facilitate and coordinate admissions. If an assessment 1700-2200 leads to admission, the PVCS psychiatrist will be responsible for coordinating the admission. The psychiatrist will have an updated list of available inpatient beds at rural facilities and contact information for the regional psychiatrists on call. If an admission cannot be facilitated, the patient will remain at the rural site until the following day, or transported according to VECTRS protocol (if meeting criteria for transport)
• Patients pending admission will remain on the PVCS and VECTRS status boards, and will continue to be
  reassessed by PVCS. Should sites have questions or require support with pending admissions, they can
  contact PVCS through TigerConnect (preferred), or VECTRS by phone
• The PVCS psychiatry team is also supporting our 12-bed virtual ward during the evening hours
• In the first months after implementation we are anticipating nights when evening PVCS coverage is not
  available (as we populate the evening call schedule). As such, evening assessments will not be consistently
  available. VECTRS will advise the referring site whether PVCS coverage is in place on a given night
• On nights when PVCS coverage is not available, the SAFE ED psychiatrist (at HSC) will provide phone
  support to VECTRS 1700-0800. No assessments will be provided.

If you have questions, please contact James Bolton

PVCS Evening Expansion Memo

Submitted by: Tamara Burnham, Collaborative Practice Lead