School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
Government of Western Australia Department of Health, Perth, WA, Australia.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2023 Feb 21;23(1):182. doi: 10.1186/s12913-023-09174-4.
The availability and use of telehealth to support health care access from a distance has expanded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth services have supported regional and remote health care access for many years and could be augmented to improve health care accessibility, acceptability and overall experiences for both consumers and clinicians. This study aimed to explore health workforce representatives' needs and expectations to move beyond existing telehealth models and plan for the future of virtual care.
To inform recommendations for augmentation, semi-structured focus group discussions were held (November-December 2021). Health workforce representatives with experience in health care delivery via telehealth across country Western Australia were approached and invited to join a discussion.
Focus group participants included 53 health workforce representatives, with between two and eight participants per discussion. In total, 12 focus groups were conducted: seven were specific to regions, three with staff in centralised roles, and two with a mixture of participants from regional and central roles. Findings identified four key areas for telehealth augmentation: improvements required to existing service practice and processes; equity and access considerations; health workforce-focussed opportunities; and consumer-focussed opportunities.
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid increase in health services delivered via telehealth modalities, it is timely to explore opportunities to augment pre-existing models of care. Workforce representatives consulted in this study suggested modifications to existing process and practice that would improve the current models of care, and recommendations on ways to improve clinician and consumer experiences with telehealth. Improving experiences with virtual delivery of health care is likely to support continued use and acceptance of this modality in health care delivery.
为应对 COVID-19 大流行，远程医疗支持医疗服务的可及性和使用范围不断扩大。多年来，远程医疗服务一直支持区域和偏远地区的医疗服务，并且可以进行扩充，以提高医疗服务的可及性、可接受性和消费者与临床医生的整体体验。本研究旨在探讨卫生劳动力代表的需求和期望，以超越现有的远程医疗模式并规划虚拟护理的未来。
为了提供扩充建议，我们进行了半结构化焦点小组讨论（2021 年 11 月至 12 月）。我们联系并邀请了具有在西澳大利亚农村地区通过远程医疗提供医疗服务经验的卫生劳动力代表参加讨论。
焦点小组参与者包括 53 名卫生劳动力代表，每次讨论有 2 至 8 名参与者。总共进行了 12 次焦点小组讨论：7 次针对特定地区，3 次针对集中角色的工作人员，2 次则由来自地区和中央角色的参与者混合组成。研究结果确定了远程医疗扩充的四个关键领域：现有服务实践和流程的改进；公平性和可及性考虑；以卫生劳动力为重点的机会；以及以消费者为重点的机会。
在 COVID-19 大流行爆发和通过远程医疗模式快速增加医疗服务之后，现在正是探索扩充现有护理模式的机会的时候。在这项研究中咨询的劳动力代表建议对现有流程和实践进行修改，以改善当前的护理模式，并就如何改善临床医生和消费者对远程医疗的体验提出建议。改善虚拟医疗服务的体验可能会支持这种模式在医疗服务中的持续使用和接受。
