Telehealth pilot at Great Ocean Road Health extended

A TELEHEALTH pilot to improve after-hours emergency services for patients in Lorne and Apollo Bay has marked its one-year anniversary, and has been extended until December.
A joint initiative between Western Victoria Primary Health Network (WVPHN) and My Emergency Dr (MED), the program was launched across several Urgent Care Centres (UCC) in the WVPHN region, including at the Lorne Community Hospital and Apollo Bay UCCs began in September 2019.
The video-call based service is operated by UCC medical staff during the after-hours period on a smart phone or tablet using the MED App, which connects users to a team of emergency specialists who can remotely get access to, diagnose and arrange treatment for patients.
After hours is defined as outside 8am to 6pm weekdays, outside 8am to noon on Saturdays; and all day on Sundays and public holidays.
Great Ocean Road Health project co-ordinator Tanja Brunner said the MED service would now be used, in a different WVPHN project, at residential aged care facilities.
“It’s only used when it’s needed – when they don’t have a GP or nurse practitioner on call.
“It’s not like they’re making stacks of telehealth calls, but everyone reports that when it’s been needed to be used, it’s been a really useful adjunct to provide care.
“Overall, the client response has been quite satisfied.
“We think of it as just another tool in the toolkit.”
Ms Brunner said the pilot was having added benefits, including encouraging the broader use of telehealth for both doctors and patients, which was especially useful during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s always something that’s wanted to be trialled, but trying to get a model that works has always been a little bit challenging.
“Whether it’s in urgent care or anywhere else, I think it’s becoming more acceptable, even from a patient perspective – they’re getting used to doing telehealth appointments with a GP.
“If they were to present at urgent care now and the response was ‘We’ve got to telehealth with a specialist or a doctor because we don’t have one here’, people would be a bit more familiar with that. It’s not an unusual scenario any more.”
Last month, WVPHN announced it had allocated $600,000 to introduce the MED service of 12 residential aged care facilities in western Victoria, three of which are in the Geelong region – Elstoft House in Hamlyn Heights, Lorne Nursing Home and Otway Health Residential Care in Apollo Bay – until May 31, 2021.
“With the significant uptake in telehealth services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw an opportunity to respond to the primary health care needs of our high-risk populations, including those living in aged care,” WVPHN chief executive officer Rowena Clift said.
“The After Hours Telehealth for Residential Aged Care Facilities project allows us to not only offer greater opportunities to limit exposure to COVID-19 for aged care residents in Geelong Otway and their GPs, but to also alleviate some of the pressure on emergency departments in this very demanding time.”