At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasn’t practical or safe to sit in a room full of people, biding your time waiting for a medical consult.
But the world continued to turn – there were still pregnancies, urgent medical surgery preparations and treatments required – the list goes on.
Tasmania’s Hospital Outpatient Clinics provide specialist medical, paediatric, obstetric and surgical assessment and care in several locations throughout the state. Some clinics also provide allied health services such as physiotherapy and testing to assist with a patient's diagnosis.
Traditionally, these clinics operated face-to-face, and very few people thought of doing it any other way. When COVID-19 hit, a rapid change in direction was needed for the health and safety of patients, hospital staff and the community.
The Telehealth expansion project was rapidly deployed with the three key principles:
• Rapid upscaling (capacity and capability);
• Accessible (consistent approach); and
• Secure (information security and patient privacy).
Experienced GSD consultants worked with the project team to rapidly develop a solution.
What would traditionally have been a 12-month project was live within a few weeks. This included:
• Expedited procurement of a secure video conferencing system (PEXIP);
• Technical implementation; and
• Change and engagement activities to equip and onboard outpatient services to the solution.
The impact was immediate, and an uptake of 25% of outpatient appointmentsbeing delivered by Telehealth was observed over three months. The teamcontinued to review and refine the system’s performance and patient uptake, butthe also discovered some additional benefits.
The project team learned a lot about the value of engaging with patients in the lead-up to their appointments. During the period March to June 2020, the project team noted a 36% decrease in patient-initiated appointment cancellations, resulting in an estimated saving of $2.2 million in lost revenue. In addition, because patients were able to attend appointments via Telehealth, there was a 3.63 million reduction in the number of kilometres travelled by patients in the same three months.
The following graphic illustrates the impact of a reduction in travel as a result of Telehealth/Virtual Consults from January 2020 to June 2021:
When the COVID-19 restrictions eased, Tasmanian outpatients returned to their former approach of in-person appointments. Given the measurable benefits of using Telehealth, the project team, including GSD, conducted deeper analysis into why people returned in-person appointments, and the barriers for adopting Telehealth as a standard option for appointment delivery (where clinically appropriate).
The team wanted to establish how to make a more permanent, impactful change to outpatient services in Tasmania. These were key inputs into shaping the Outpatients Transformation Strategy, which we continue to work on with the Health ICT project team today. This includes the Digital Outpatient Management & Virtual Care project which specifically aims to address the challenges that were identified in normalising telehealth as a standard mode of appointment delivery in THS Outpatient Services.
"It's fantastic that we can continue to work with Health ICT in improving the delivery of these services for all Tasmanians."
- GSD Project Consultant Sam Scurrah
For more information, please contact us at info@gsdadvisors.com.au
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