Telemedicine Centre, Lions Eye Institute, 2 Verdun Street, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia.
J Telemed Telecare. 2010;16(4):176-80. doi: 10.1258/jtt.2010.004003.
To provide a baseline for future planning we conducted a survey of the use of telemedicine in the state of Western Australia. A questionnaire was designed, validated and posted to all public and private health-care facilities in Western Australia (metropolitan hospitals, country hospitals and nursing posts). Of the 132 questionnaires sent out, 102 were returned (77% response rate). Seven of the responding hospitals (all public) were classified as mainly providers of telehealth services and 95 (both public and private) were mainly receivers. Of these 95 receivers of services, 58 facilities (61%) reported that they had access to videoconferencing for telehealth purposes. The most common purposes for which videoconferencing was used were reported to be education (76% of those using videoconferencing), wound care (55%) and psychiatry (53%). The most common store-and-forward application was tele-ECG, which was reported by more than half (54%) of respondents. Eighty-five percent of public health-care facilities reported the use of telehealth (either videoconferencing or store-and-forward) in comparison with 24% of those in the private sector. There was a tendency for facilities further away from Perth to be users of more telehealth services: the correlation between distance and the number of telehealth services received was significant (Spearman's rho = 0.54, P < 0.001). The survey showed that about 73% of responding health-care facilities in Western Australia were using telemedicine.
为了为未来的规划提供基础，我们对西澳大利亚州的远程医疗使用情况进行了调查。我们设计、验证了一份问卷，并将其发送给西澳大利亚州的所有公共和私人医疗保健机构（大都市医院、乡村医院和护理站）。在发出的 132 份问卷中，有 102 份被退回（回应率为 77%）。在做出回应的 7 家医院（均为公立）中，有 7 家被归类为主要提供远程医疗服务的医院，而 95 家（包括公立和私立）则主要是服务的接受者。在这些服务的 95 个接受者中，有 58 个设施（61%）报告说他们可以为远程医疗目的使用视频会议。报告称，视频会议最常被用于教育（76%使用视频会议的人）、伤口护理（55%）和精神病学（53%）。最常见的存储和转发应用是远程心电图，超过一半（54%）的受访者报告了这一应用。85%的公共医疗保健设施报告使用远程医疗（无论是视频会议还是存储和转发），而私营部门的这一比例为 24%。距离珀斯越远的设施越倾向于使用更多的远程医疗服务：设施与所接受的远程医疗服务数量之间的相关性具有统计学意义（Spearman's rho = 0.54，P < 0.001）。调查显示，西澳大利亚州约 73%的医疗保健机构正在使用远程医疗。
