Audio-only consults miss the mark for some patients

A new report from the Bureau of Health Information says NSW patients are all in favour of telehealth, except for three specific groups.

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Over 90% of New South Wales patients who received virtual care in the past 12 months rated the experience as either very good or good, according to a new report from the Bureau of Health Information.

The exceptions were patients who had never met the doctor providing the telehealth before, patients who did not speak English at home and – significantly for doctors sceptical about video technology – patients who had an audio-only appointment.

The BHI’s Patients experiences of virtual care in 2022 report detailed experiences of 2301 patients who had at least one virtual care appointment with a NSW public hospital outpatient clinic in November or December of 2022; 1554 of those respondents also had at least one virtual care appointment with a GP and provided feedback.

A total of 92% rated the virtual care they received as either very good or good; 44% said they would definitely use virtual care again and another 46% said they would “in some circumstances”.

“Across most measures, patients were more likely to choose the most positive response option if their most recent virtual care appointment had been with the health professional(s) they had seen before,” said the report.

“For example, these patients were more than three times more likely to say that health professionals ‘always’ explained things in a way they could understand and were twice as likely to say they were ‘definitely’ involved in decisions about their care and treatment.

“Patients who speak a language other than English at home, and patients who had an audio-only appointment, were less likely to be positive for a range of key measures.”

The BHI’s analyses showed seeing the health professional in person before receiving virtual care had a significant positive impact on patients’ ratings of care coordination, how likely they were to say their virtual care helped them and their likelihood of using virtual care again.

“For example, patients whose most recent virtual care appointment was with their regular GP were almost twice as likely to say that the opportunity to use GP virtual care in the past 12 months ‘definitely’ ensured their care was well coordinated between the GP and the hospital outpatient clinic,” wrote the authors.

“However, patients who had an audio-only virtual care appointment were almost half as likely to say that virtual care appointments with hospital outpatient clinics in the past 12 months ‘definitely’ helped them. They were also almost half as likely to say they would ‘definitely’ use virtual care again.”

Recently, the RACGP hit back at MBS guidance suggesting GPs should opt for video telehealth over phone consultations.

When asked about the benefits of virtual care over in-person consultations, most surveyed patients (73%) cited convenience, saved time (57%) and feeling more at ease in their own surroundings (43%).

The three most common challenges mentioned were being more comfortable talking in person (26%), waiting too long for the appointment to start (8%) and issues with the technology (6%).

“Some patients (35%) said receiving safe, high-quality care was a benefit of virtual care for them,” said the report.

“Patients whose most recent appointment was with the health professional they had seen before were two times more likely to say this, however, patients who had an audio-only appointment were only half as likely to.”