Aims
The Australian healthcare system has undergone rapid implementation of telehealth outpatient care following the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to review telehealth utilisation across the different consultation modalities, with a focus on potentially disadvantaged patient demographics such as the elderly, Indigenous, and cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) patients, and whether phone-based support was effective in helping patients utilise video as a preferred method over phone consultation.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective review of the proportional utilisation of face-to-face, video, and telephone outpatient appointments across the Monash Health oncology service (excluding clinical trials) over a 12 month period commencing in April 2020. A phone-based intervention was also undertaken in a sample of patients with booked telephone review consultations, with the goal of identifying barriers and facilitating transition to video consultation.
Results
17 685 patient appointments were analysed over twelve months. Telehealth was utilised for the majority of appointments (79%), with video more prevalent than telephone consults (46% versus 32%). Telehealth was utilised in similar proportions across elderly, Indigenous and CALD patient groups (75%, 85% and 75% respectively), with higher telephone usage in Indigenous patients and age groups over 70 (39% and 40%). Following a phone-based intervention in 99 patients, 23 patients converted from phone to video, and only 6 patients subsequently reverted back to telephone.
Conclusions
Telehealth appointments are being utilised as the main modality of oncology outpatient consultations in the Monash Oncology service, with equitable uptake across most demographics.
Discussion-based intervention is resource-intensive but can be successful in converting telephone-utilising patients to video.
Acknowledgements: None.