Zoom for Healthcare licenses renewed for one year

Family doctors, community specialists, and other health care providers will have their Zoom licenses automatically renewed free-of-charge for an additional year for the purposes of providing virtual care. The announcement, made by the Doctors Technology Office (a program funded jointly by Doctors of BC and the BC Ministry of Health through the General Practice Services Committee) and the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), means physicians can access free Zoom for Healthcare licenses up until August 21, 2022.

The decision was made following requests that the original commitment of free licenses for one year made near the start of the pandemic be extended so that doctors and others can continue to provide strong virtual care services to patients. 

For those with licenses already, renewal is automatic. Family doctors and community specialists who would like to start using Zoom for Healthcare free-of-charge can find information on the Doctors of BC website.

Doctors are seeing much higher than normal volumes of virtual health visits during the pandemic, up to 20,000 per week. In a recent survey conducted by PHSA and its partners, patients gave virtual health visits in BC high praise. Patients felt that virtual health visits made it easier and faster to access care, allowed the inclusion of family members, and saved them travel time and travel costs. 

To support the rapid increase in virtual health visits, DTO and PHSA have distributed over 1,500 free Zoom for Healthcare licenses to doctors in BC. In addition to the licenses, DTO offers ongoing virtual care support directly to doctors. This includes:

• Webinars on topics such as setting up virtual care, virtual group medical visits, and best practices for virtual care exams. Ninety-four per cent of the 1,750 doctors and clinic team member participants found these webinars valuable or very valuable.

• New digital resources, guides, and videos that care providers accessed over 6,300 times during the pandemic.

• Support services provided by DTO and the Practice Support Program coaches to help practices enable and optimize virtual care. To date, over 860 requests and 300 practice facilitation cycles have been supported by coaches to implement and improve delivery of virtual care.

Please contact 604-638-5841 or View Email Addressdtoinfo@doctorsofbc.ca for inquiries. 

Learn more about the services that DTO and PSP offers.