Telehealth connects regional nursing home residents to face-to-face GP services
Published: 20 August 2019
Recently Healthdirect Australia worked closely with Rural and Remote Medical Services Ltd (RaRMS) to implement a short-term, innovative, telehealth model of care for William Beech Gardens (Condobolin) nursing home residents, using healthdirect Video Call.
Healthdirect Video Call is a video consultation service managed by Healthdirect Australia. It is purpose-built for health settings to support workflows that are familiar both to consumers and healthcare providers. It is safe and secure, providing health-grade privacy via high-quality encrypted video technology (WebRTC) which is available in modern web browsers.
Overcoming barriers to accessing quality care
In July 2019, a severe GP shortage in Condobolin led to difficulties in nursing home residents at William Beech Gardens being able to see GPs face-to-face.
RaRMS and Healthdirect Australia quickly overcame the GP shortage for 23 residents with health needs by setting up face-to-face consultations with GPs from RaRMS's Remote GP Service, via video consultation. The consultations covered a range of health concerns including episodic and event-based care, chronic disease management and medication management and other urgent care needs.
This telehealth model of care maintained essential access to face-to-face GP services, avoiding the need to send elderly residents to the local emergency department, the only other appropriate face-to-face service available at the time.
healthdirect Video Call connected 23 elderly residents with face-to-face GP services
Enabling primary care
Dr Freddy Chafota, working for RaRMS's Remote GP Service said, "It was a very fulfilling experience for me as a clinician. With the help of the local nursing staff, I was able to review the residents via video, provide the medical management required, update the clinical notes in an electronic health record and provide an encounter summary back to the resident's usual GP."
RaRMS CEO, Mr Shane Hatton said, "Importantly, RaRMS's Remote GP Service model does not replace local service providers but supports them and all relevant stakeholders. In the case of Condobolin, this model was implemented at short notice, to overcome an immediate GP workforce shortage, and once the workforce levels improved, face-to-face medical services within the nursing home resumed."
This primary healthcare-led collaborative solution can be applied in many different healthcare settings to support communities with limited access to face-to-face services.
More information on healthdirect Video Call can be found here. If you have further questions, contact Sam Georgy, Service Director, Video Call, Healthdirect Australia.
Last reviewed: August 2019