CASE STUDY Waitematā
Waitematā DHB has built a toolkit to enable administrators and clinicians to deliver telehealth as part of its long- term strategy to provide virtual care as an option for patients. Waitematā is the only DHB to have delivered more telehealth appointments in a week following the national Level 4 lockdown, than during it. The average number of telehealth appointments conducted per week in November 2019 was 150, rising to more than 7,800 in April 2020, then up to 10,000 telehealth
send a prescription electronically, are key to a sustainable service. The DHB also recently introduced a new tool to allow clinicians to email patients relevant information about their condition, something which used to be given as a paper booklet during consultations. “It’s about having the whole package working. I wasn’t surprised to see our August numbers above April because it’s quite easy to pivot to a greater proportion of telehealth with that in place,” explains Christiansen. The DHB is yet to work out what is a realistic and sustainable number of telehealth appointments post-crisis. During lockdown, people had to have telehealth appointments when in- person would have been preferable and now the DHB is working to catch up on missed appointments. Christiansen says the focus should remain on continuing to provide good quality care and giving patients choice about how they receive that. He says the DHB had a three-year plan to introduce more telehealth between 2019 and 2022, and has already achieved greater numbers than expected in less than a year. “It’s astonishing, not only the numbers of appointments, but how much has changed to achieve those numbers,” he says.
appointments conducted during a week in August.
Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Christiansen in Waitematā DHB’s telehealth pod.
Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Christiansen says telehealth is not just about having the option of a phone or video interaction with a patient. “You need quite a lot of infrastructure and staffing support to make that work and what we’ve been building over the last several years is the toolkit to allow administrators and clinicians to support the telehealth work,” he says. Administrators have worked hard to get the majority of patients on to validated email addresses, which means they can be set up with one-link Zoom appointments. Every clinic room has video capabilities and administrative teams have booking options for telehealth. Tools such as ePrescribing and eOrders, so a clinician can easily order tests or
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TELEHEALTH OCTOBER 2020 : : 7
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