Effectiveness of telehealth in preventive care: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of tele-exercise programme involving older people with possible sarcopenia or at risk of fall.

BACKGROUND: Continuous loss of muscle mass and strength are the consequences of the ageing process, which increase the risk of falls among older people. Falls can lead to severe consequences such as bone fractures and hampered physical and psychological well-being. Regular exercise is the key to reversing muscle atrophy and relieving sarcopenia. However, the frailty of older people and the recent COVID-19 pandemic may affect their confidence to leave home to attend classes in the community. A feasible and effective alternative should be explored. METHODS: The primary objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of tele-exercise (TE) in relation to physical functioning and exercise adherence among community-dwelling older people at risk of falls in comparison with a community-based group (CB). The secondary objective includes evaluating older people's experience with tele-exercise, emphasizing their psychological welfare, social well-being, and acceptance of the telehealth approach. The design, conduct, and report follow the SPIRIT guidelines (Standard Protocol Items: recommended items to address in a Clinical Trial Protocol and Related Documents). Older people will be recruited from 10 local community centres in Hong Kong and randomly allocated into two groups. All participants will attend the exercise training 3 days per week for 3 months but the mode of delivery will differ, either online as the tele-exercise group (TE) or face-to-face as the community-based group (CB). The outcome measures include muscle strength, physical function, exercise adherence and dropout rate, psychological and social well-being will be assessed at the baseline, and the 3rd, 6th and 12th month. Some participants will be invited to attend focus group interviews to evaluate their overall experience of the tele-exercise training. DISCUSSION: Tele-exercise reduces the barriers to exercise, such as time constraints, inaccessibility to facilities, and the fear of frail older people leaving their homes. Promoting an online home-based exercise programme for older people can encourage them to engage in regular physical activity and increase their exercise adherence even when remaining at home. The use of telehealth can potentially result in savings in cost and time. The final findings will provide insights on delivering exercise via telehealth to older people and propose an exercise delivery and maintenance model for future practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( https://www.chictr.org.cn/hvshowprojectEN.html?id=219002&v=1.1 ), registration number: ChiCTR2200063370. Registered on 5 September 2022.

Medical Savings Account balance and outpatient utilization: Evidence from Guangzhou, China.

Medical Savings Account (MSA) is a financing instrument designed to reduce consumer-side moral hazards. The Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) scheme in China has an MSA component in addition to a Social Risk-pooling Fund. This study examines the association between MSA balance and outpatient utilization in Guangzhou, China, and determines MSA's impact on utilization under different circumstances. It also seeks to ascertain whether MSA has achieved its intended functions of "Cost-containment", "Saving for the future" and "Enabling utilization". The first group of 114,657 MSA account-holders, including both employees and retirees, who consistently insured with UEBMI from 2002 to 2007, are selected for this study. A two-part model is employed to estimate the effect of the MSA balance on the probability of outpatient services utilization and on the level of outpatient expenditure. Results show that MSA balance is significantly associated with the likelihood of using outpatient services as well as the level of outpatient expenditure. The association is a non-linear U-shaped relationship for working individuals, and an inverted U-shaped relationship for the retirees. The observed U-shaped relationship for working individuals implies that at lower MSA balance levels, a negative balance-expenditure relation exits, while at higher MSA balance levels, the relationship is positive--suggesting possible improper utilization when MSA balance reaches high levels. Setting a maximum MSA balance limit and/or allowing enrollees to use MSA funds to purchase private insurance appears to be desirable. The observed inverted U-shaped relationship for retirees suggests that many retirees have to spend whatever funds they have in their MSA for outpatient care, but the less healthy individuals are able to shift the spending to inpatient care which is mainly financed by the Social Risk-pooling Fund. The results of this study also affirm the usefulness of MSA in performing its intended functions.

Towards a balanced performance measurement system in a public health care organization.

PURPOSE: This article attempts to devise an integrated performance measurement framework to assess the Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) management system by harnessing previous performance measurement systems. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: An integrated evaluative framework based on the balanced score card (BSC) was developed and applied using the case study method and longitudinal data to evaluate the HA's performance management system. FINDINGS: The authors unveil evolving HA performance indicators (P1). Despite the HA staffs explicit quality emphasis, cost control remains the primary focus in their performance measurements. RESEARCH LHNITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: Data used in this study are from secondary sources, disclosed mostly by HA staff. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: This study shows public sector staff often attach too much importance to cost control and easily measurable activities at the expense of quality and other less easily measurable attributes'. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: A balanced performance measurement system, linked to health targets, with a complementary budgeting process that supports pertinent resource allocation is yet to be implemented in Hong Kong's public hospitals.

Rationing hospital services in Hong Kong: priority setting by clinicians using the Delphi method.

This article presents the results of a demonstration project of priority setting by clinicians in Hong Kong's public hospitals. Thirty-five chiefs-of-service of public hospitals in Hong Kong participated in a three-round Delphi exercise on identifying interventions that should be charged in public hospitals on the basis of questionable effectiveness and other reasons. A total of 246 interventions were identified in the first round, 126 of which received a positive score (indicating a high degree of consensus amongst the participants) at the end of the final round. The interventions that received higher scores tend to be preventive services, treatment of an elective nature, and procedures for sex-related conditions. As the number of interventions with positive scores in the final round are relatively small, the amount of money to be recovered from charging these interventions is not likely to be substantial. Such results suggest that rationing by itself cannot be a solution to the problems of healthcare financing in Hong Kong.