specialty focus
Pushing forward
The future of telehealth in residential care .
By Mark Williams
COVID-19 is seen as the catalyst for many changes to entrenched behaviours and practices across society . Of all sectors these changes have been no less in aged care .
The reality is that Covid accelerated existing slowly evolving trends . It also brought into the spotlight , and into use , technology capabilities that had been available for years but without widespread adoption .
So where have we come from and where are we going ?
Telehealth is a phone call with a medical professional : which has been available since Alexander Graeme Bell invented the telephone over 140 years ago , however , not widely adopted .
Telehealth 2.0 saw the addition of video call capability using platforms such as Zoom , Skype and Facetime . Interestingly , when Covid restricted the possibility and desirability for the community to visit medical professionals , much of the industry leapt on the idea of doing consultations by video .
However , people soon realised that in many cases video wasn ’ t much better than a phone . In some cases it was worse because of unreliable connection quality .
And while many of us found a phone call to the doctor to be handy , there was no method for the doctor to gather reliable clinical data .
The gap between what telehealth is for most and what it could be for all is the ability for medical professionals to conduct a reliable clinical examination remotely .
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Enter Telehealth 3.0 which sees the augmentation of a video call with devices that are purpose-built to accurately capture and share that clinical data , with the patient in one location and the medical professional in another . With this evolution comes many other benefits to patients , carers and medical professionals .
Benefits for aged care residents Responsive care Where a medical issue requires a quick response , elderly residents are frequently rushed to hospital , which brings with it a myriad of issues for the resident and carers . Especially when a resident is frail , immunocompromised or highly transmissible illness is circulating in the wider community . In many cases this move to another facility could be avoided with responsive telehealth care .
Specialist care at the bedside Across the globe medical specialists are in short supply , with regional areas significantly more affected . Using Telehealth 3.0 , specialists can provide care directly without the resident leaving their bed .
Collaboration in care Another benefit of the technologies used to support telehealth is that the data is captured and recorded , enabling it to then be shared with others ; perhaps family or specialists when a matter needs to be escalated or second opinion sought . All of this without the trauma and upheaval of further attendance at a hospital and examination by a doctor .
Equally , this high quality of examination data can be uploaded to an electronic health record , providing a better medical
“ Uncertainty regarding the adoption of telehealth comes from a fear of the unknown .
history than physical artefacts stored in filing cabinets across multiple locations .
Telehealth 3.0 benefits for aged care staff and management Care staff empowerment Whenever a resident leaves their aged care facility staff are immediately distanced from what follows until the resident returns . And what often remains is an accurate knowledge gap of what transpired . This disempowers staff and negatively impacts their ability to provide the best level of care possible . Telehealth appointments enable and often require staff to play a greater role in the process which reduces the gap .
Build capability and clinical skills Playing a greater role in the examination and assessment process will inevitability improve the capability of care staff . Which isn ’ t to replace doctors and specialists , but can contribute to more accurate sharing of resident symptoms and response to care regimes . Equally , it can better equip staff to identify matters of concern that should be escalated .
Operational efficiency When a resident is moved outside a facility for medical reasons this can not only be traumatic for them but lead to great disruption for staff . This disruption generates operational inefficiency for staff that are already stressed . Reducing resident movement improves operational efficiency .