PA Hospital’s Gastroenterology (Gastro) team has partnered with Telehealth Services in a recent project to optimise telehealth video appointments for patients and administration staff.
All patients scheduled for a new telehealth video appointment in the trial clinic received the latest resource over a four-week implementation period.
The video animation titled ‘Are You Ready for Telehealth – Video Call?’ was designed with consumer consultation and helps patients self-assess their capability for a telehealth appointment.
“We wanted to make preparing for a telehealth video appointment easy for all our consumers,” said Senior Telehealth Coordinator, Karen Lucas.
“We developed this resource with inclusivity and accessibility in mind, and it is clear from the results that it has had a positive impact.”
Failure to attend rates for new telehealth video appointments decreased from over 9 per cent to under 2 per cent, giving back 6.25 hours in utilised clinic time in the first month.
The number of overall telehealth video appointments increased by 7.63 per cent. Gastro administration staff reported fewer telehealth troubleshooting calls from patients, saving valuable time.
“We’ve received less contact from both Medical Officers and patients requesting support with telehealth video appointments,” Clinical Nurse Consultant Amanda Whaley said.
“It shows that the patient resource and clinical training from Telehealth Services is effective and impacts our workflows.”
Since the trial, Metro South Telehealth has created a new and improved version of the patient resource video which can be viewed here: Are you ready for a Telehealth video appointment?