TELEHEALTH FACT SHEET
https://www.acrrm.org.au/docs/default-source/all-files/telehealth-factsheet_quality-of-care-(2).pdf
PATIENT CONSIDERATIONS
Autonomy
- Remote consultations improve convenience and service range.
- Beneficial for patients who find travel difficult.
- Some patients may struggle with accessing or using technology.
- Some prefer in-person visits for social reasons.
- Offering remote options respects patient autonomy if healthcare quality isn’t compromised.
Privacy
- Some patients feel greater privacy remotely (e.g., psychiatric care).
- Extra care needed to ensure privacy during remote consultations.
- Patients must ensure private space for calls.
- Patients should avoid unintentionally sharing health info online.
Informed Consent
- Patients won’t see usual clinic info (e.g., posters, brochures).
- Ensure patient has received and understood digital materials.
- Informed consent must be explicitly obtained.
Access to Care
- Remote consultations improve equitable access.
- Barriers remain for vulnerable groups (e.g., Indigenous, CALD, disabled, victims of violence).
- Avoid assumptions; for example, video may help hearing-impaired patients lip-read.
PATIENT-CLINICIAN RELATIONSHIPS
- Rapport can be established remotely, though initially may feel awkward.
- Loss of body language and touch can reduce perceived warmth and care.
- Patients expect clinicians’ full attention—explain if multitasking (e.g., checking records).
- Concerns about depersonalization are common, especially in sensitive situations.
- Communication skills and rapport can improve with experience.
- Option for in-person visits should remain when rapport is lacking.
CLINICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Quality of Care
- Remote consultations allow timely, high-quality specialist input.
- Risk of clinician over-reliance on specialists.
- Lack of physical exam may affect diagnosis or treatment.
- Triage is essential to decide suitability for remote care.
- Factors to consider:
- Clinical: continuity, shared care, care model.
- Practical: specialist/staff availability, tech access.
- Patient’s capacity and social context.
- Continuous assessment of consultation appropriateness.
Duty of Care in Remote Consultations
- Duty of care is shared among involved clinicians.
- Responsibilities (scripts, follow-up, etc.) must be clear and documented.
- Remote clinicians should assess the adequacy of information from local providers and request more if needed.
Education and Up-skilling
- Telehealth tech can support clinician education and mentoring.
- Promotes skill development, especially in rural areas.
- In-person learning remains important for hands-on and social engagement.
- Better skills improve care quality and continuity for chronic patients.
Safety and Quality of Primary Healthcare
- Remote consultations should meet same standards as in-person care.
- National safety standards are being developed (Australian Commission).
- ACRRM provides telehealth standards and audit tools.
- Resources available at acrrm.org.au/telehealth.
Cost and Efficiency Benefits of Remote Consultations
- Reduce travel-related costs for patients and clinicians.
- Potential to redirect savings into other areas of healthcare.
- Improves system efficiency when integrated into refined care models.
- Promotes evidence-based practice and use of clinical guidelines (especially in specialist services).
- Supports rural and remote services effectively when implemented well.
- Enhances communication and coordination between healthcare professionals.
- Can improve integration of care across services.
Potential Downsides
- Risk of care fragmentation if not integrated with existing local services or referral pathways.
- May conflict with roles of local healthcare workers.
- Important to embed telehealth within existing referral systems to maintain continuity of care.
Workforce Benefits of Telehealth
- Reduces need for clinician travel → increases workforce efficiency.
- Helps distribute specialist expertise more broadly, including to underserved areas.
- Addresses workforce shortages in rural areas through remote coverage.
- Risk: Could lead to over-reliance on city-based specialists performing only video consults.
- May result in fewer procedural services being delivered in rural areas.
🩺 Procedural Specialists
- Can use telehealth for pre- and post-operative consults.
- Frees up in-person time for more procedures in rural hospitals.
Professional Development and Clinical Skills
- Requires clinicians to adapt clinical decision-making to telehealth platforms.
- Video and telephone consults are a new skillset with different strengths/limitations.
- Over time, doctors will:
- Become more comfortable with telehealth modalities.
- Expand the range of clinical issues managed via telehealth.