When Dr. Ezekial Steve arrived in Robson Valley for his locum placement in January 2025, he knew he would be working hard. Covering both Valemount and McBride meant long days managing patients in clinic, the emergency room, and inpatient settings. But what made this placement different was the opportunity to test a new approach to overnight care.

For one week—January 7 to 13, 2025—Dr. Steve was part of a pilot project that brought together Real-Time Virtual Support (RTVS) and the Rural Locums Initiative. The goal was to see whether a single locum could provide daytime coverage for a rural community while handing off overnight emergency and inpatient care to a virtual team.

At 8:00 p.m. each night, Dr. Steve signed off, knowing that any patient needs would be managed remotely by physicians on RTVS’s Virtual Emergency Room Rural Assistance (VERRa) team in collaboration with on-site community nurses. VERRa, a team of emergency medicine physicians and family doctors with emergency training, has been supporting small rural hospitals experiencing staffing shortages since 2021. But this was the first time the team partnered with a locum to provide an entire week of uninterrupted coverage for a community.