Interest in digital health at ‘all-time high’

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Picture: CDHB staff visit the digital health week stall at Burwood Hospital

eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Engagement and interest in all things digital is at an all-time high amongst staff in Canterbury DHB’s older person’s health and rehabilitation division.

The division’s technology group ran a local digital health week for staff in mid-March.

Project manager Rowena Woolgar says the group had been planning the event since December 2019 and was asked by leadership to prioritise running it following the outbreak of Covid-19.

“The idea was to create a showcase to show our staff and remind them what's available to them, what are the key updates, and to give another opportunity for them to connect with some of the people who are leading and designing the tools they get to use every day,” she tells eHealthNews.nz.

A stall at Burwood Hospital was manned twice a day to catch people at morning tea and lunchtime. Visitors could talk to members of the team and digital champions (clinicians who volunteer to help colleagues in an ad hoc manner).

“For those who worked remotely, we did them an email of the day on one of the themes that was being covered at the expo,” she says.

“We had some laptops there, and a couple of computer monitors so if people asked a question about where resources lived or they wanted to watch a video, we would just quickly take them through how to find it and view that information.

“We also had some spare telehealth kit that we use such as different webcams, microphones and speakers, so people could have the opportunity to sit down with one of our team and practice using them.”

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the older person’s health and rehabilitation technology group has been assisting practically on the wards, training small groups of staff at short notice to support telehealth setup and provision.

Woolgar says general interest in technology has risen to an “all-time high,” with traffic to the group’s resource site increasing significantly as staff recognise the need to be digitally prepared.

“There’s also been an increase in staff contacting their digital champions and making enquiries around telehealth use cases and facilities we have on site ready to support telehealth,” she says.

“There were a number of people who came to the stall and said they felt they needed to learn more about this because they thought they were going to need to use more of it soon.”

Staff were reminded of the range of upskilling checklists available for each discipline, that act as a starting place for managers and staff on what they need to do to ensure they are keeping their knowledge and skills up-to-date.

If a staff member does not feel confident in a particular area they are directed to contact their line manager about getting training or support.

If you would like to provide feedback on this news story, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

Read more news:
Telehealth gets $20 million injection
DHBs’ digital services ramping up

For more information and resources about COVID-19 go to https://www.hinz.org.nz/page/covid19

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