GPs video consultations to improve resident care
A trial to investigate whether funding GPs to conduct video consultations with residential aged care residents will improve patient care is underway.
Residential and community aged care provider, Feros Care, is taking part in the program, Better Health Care Connections: Aged Care Multidisciplinary Care Coordination and Advisory Services Program, which aims to support older people with complex health needs who would benefit from higher levels of multidisciplinary, coordinated care and treatment.
Nine organisations were funded from 2013, including eight Medicare Locals and Byron Bay Feros Care Village. The program has funding for pilots to provide payments to GPs to conduct video consultations with aged care residents.
Feros Care's eHealth and primary care manager, Shelly Fletcher, says since the trial commenced, it has conducted 139 telehealth consults with GPs and established a fortnightly virtual clinic between Bay Centre Medical and Byron Bay Feros Care Village.
The trial is part of Feros Care's larger project, Electronic Village (eVillage), which Ms Fletcher says aims to use technology to transform care by embedding electronic records, secure messaging and teleconferencing as standard practice.
It is also paying GPs for work that they often find themselves doing for free, including discussing a resident's care with a registered nurse over the phone. Under the current MBS rebate, GPs are only paid if they visit the facility in person or the resident makes the trip in to see the doctor.
While the payments in this trial are lower than those for on-site GP visits, they are close to par with the rebates for a patient attending their surgery, Ms Fletcher claims.
Most GPs with patients in residential care spend unpaid time on the phone or answering faxes or emails from aged care nurses. According to Ms Fletcher, not only are GPs not compensated for this work, but nurses can waste hours trying to communicate with the GP.
Since the trial has commenced, GPs and nurses are using video consults for a range of reasons, including discussing pathology and script requests and referrals, as well as case conferences to discuss things like advanced care planning as well as to escalate care.
The trial is due to end in 2017.
