Consumer perspectives of telehealth in ambulatory care in an Australian health network.

We aimed to explore consumer experiences of ambulatory telehealth services and whether consumer experiences differed according to whether they received their consultation using telephone or video technology. We conducted structured telephone interviews with patient consumers who had received a recent remote consultation by telephone or video call, at local ambulatory allied health or multidisciplinary services within a large public metropolitan public health network. Respondents were asked about their recent experience and future choices in relation to telehealth. Responses from consumers who received telephone and video consultations were compared. Consumers from community rehabilitation, community health, allied health outpatients, multidisciplinary specialist clinics and mental health services participated (n = 379), of whom 245 received a telephone consultation (65%) and 134 a video consultation (35%). Almost half of respondents (49%) expressed preference for future face-to-face care and 29% reported they would choose to use telehealth over face-to-face consultation for a similar appointment again. Many commented that they would be influenced by the type of consultation required and expressed a desire to have a choice. Approximately 80% of both groups reported they had achieved the desired outcome from their telehealth consultation. Consumers using video were more likely to experience technical issues. Telehealth met the needs of most consumers, and responses were similar for telephone and video consultations.

Saturday allied health services for geriatric evaluation and management: A controlled before-and-after trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of Saturday allied health services on a geriatric evaluation and management ward. METHODS: A controlled before-and-after trial at two wards. Allied health services were added to usual weekday staffing on Saturdays for 6 months on the experimental ward. Length of stay, functional independence, readmissions, discharge destination and costs were evaluated at pre-intervention (N = 331) and intervention (N = 462). RESULTS: Relative to the comparison ward, the experimental ward had longer length of stay (mean 7.8 days, 95% CI 4.7-10.8), fewer readmissions (mean 3.1 days, 95% CI 0.6-5.7) and no difference in the proportion discharged home. Cost-effectiveness demonstrated no significant difference in cost ($2639, 95% CI $-386 to $5647) and functional independence gain (3.6 units, 95% CI 0.8-6.5) favouring the experimental ward. CONCLUSION: These findings do not support the provision of additional Saturday allied health services in geriatric evaluation and management to reduce length of stay.