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Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia

In Australia, telehealth is not new, with several telehealth specialist services being available for those living in rural and remote communities. However, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was not routinely available for primary care or urban specialist appointments. There has been an incr...

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Autores principales: Toll, Kaylie, Spark, Lauren, Neo, Belinda, Norman, Richard, Elliott, Sarah, Wells, Leanne, Nesbitt, Julia, Frean, Isobel, Robinson, Suzanne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9432716/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36044536
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273935
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author Toll, Kaylie
Spark, Lauren
Neo, Belinda
Norman, Richard
Elliott, Sarah
Wells, Leanne
Nesbitt, Julia
Frean, Isobel
Robinson, Suzanne
author_facet Toll, Kaylie
Spark, Lauren
Neo, Belinda
Norman, Richard
Elliott, Sarah
Wells, Leanne
Nesbitt, Julia
Frean, Isobel
Robinson, Suzanne
author_sort Toll, Kaylie
collection PubMed
description In Australia, telehealth is not new, with several telehealth specialist services being available for those living in rural and remote communities. However, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was not routinely available for primary care or urban specialist appointments. There has been an increased focus in the use of telehealth within primary care, and particularly general practice, but overall, there has been limited research to date to guide telehealth best-practice based on consumer experiences and preferences within these settings. We aimed to capture the consumer experience of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, through a novel Kitchen Table Discussion (KTD) method. This increases access to a broader community consumer cohort, with consumer hosts leading discussions in a safe environment. The KTDs were conducted in May 2021, with 10 community members each hosting a group of up to 10 participants. A total of 90 participants took part from across Australia, with the majority living in major cities, although a significant proportion lived in inner and outer regional areas of Australia, or had experience living in rural, regional or remote areas. Seventy percent of participants reported using telehealth in the past. Data were analysed sequentially using thematic analysis and identified key themes: modality, convenience, access, wait time, existing relationship, communication, connectivity, cost, and privacy. Overall, the future of telehealth looks hopeful from the perspective of the consumer, but significant improvements are required to improve consumer engagement and experience. It is evident that ‘one size does not fit all’, with results suggesting consumers value the availability of telehealth and having choice and flexibility to use telehealth when appropriate, but do not want to see telehealth replacing face-to-face delivery. Participants tended to agree that telehealth was not a preferred method when physical examination was required but would suit certain points of the patient journey.
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spelling pubmed-94327162022-09-01 Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia Toll, Kaylie Spark, Lauren Neo, Belinda Norman, Richard Elliott, Sarah Wells, Leanne Nesbitt, Julia Frean, Isobel Robinson, Suzanne PLoS One Research Article In Australia, telehealth is not new, with several telehealth specialist services being available for those living in rural and remote communities. However, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was not routinely available for primary care or urban specialist appointments. There has been an increased focus in the use of telehealth within primary care, and particularly general practice, but overall, there has been limited research to date to guide telehealth best-practice based on consumer experiences and preferences within these settings. We aimed to capture the consumer experience of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, through a novel Kitchen Table Discussion (KTD) method. This increases access to a broader community consumer cohort, with consumer hosts leading discussions in a safe environment. The KTDs were conducted in May 2021, with 10 community members each hosting a group of up to 10 participants. A total of 90 participants took part from across Australia, with the majority living in major cities, although a significant proportion lived in inner and outer regional areas of Australia, or had experience living in rural, regional or remote areas. Seventy percent of participants reported using telehealth in the past. Data were analysed sequentially using thematic analysis and identified key themes: modality, convenience, access, wait time, existing relationship, communication, connectivity, cost, and privacy. Overall, the future of telehealth looks hopeful from the perspective of the consumer, but significant improvements are required to improve consumer engagement and experience. It is evident that ‘one size does not fit all’, with results suggesting consumers value the availability of telehealth and having choice and flexibility to use telehealth when appropriate, but do not want to see telehealth replacing face-to-face delivery. Participants tended to agree that telehealth was not a preferred method when physical examination was required but would suit certain points of the patient journey. Public Library of Science 2022-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9432716/ /pubmed/36044536 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273935 Text en © 2022 Toll et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Toll, Kaylie
Spark, Lauren
Neo, Belinda
Norman, Richard
Elliott, Sarah
Wells, Leanne
Nesbitt, Julia
Frean, Isobel
Robinson, Suzanne
Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia
title Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia
title_full Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia
title_fullStr Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia
title_full_unstemmed Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia
title_short Consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: Qualitative evidence from Australia
title_sort consumer preferences, experiences, and attitudes towards telehealth: qualitative evidence from australia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9432716/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36044536
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273935
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