Bay of Plenty integrates telehealth workflow

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty, has undertaken a telehealth video consults proof of concept project, integrating their Zoom telehealth appointment workflow into select clinical operating systems.

With a steady increase in the use of telehealth, Te Whatu Ora Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty was one of four districts that secured Ministry of Health planned care funding focused on developing digital enabled services.

By integrating their telehealth workflow with Zoom, their patient administration system (WebPAS) and the regional Midland Clinical Portal (MCP), they removed the need to use multiple systems and tools to schedule, communicate and conduct a telehealth appointment.

Leanne Elder, Te Whatu Ora Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty – digital enablement programme manager, says the previous process was not efficient. It involved the scheduler making the clinic appointment in WebPAS and separately creating a Zoom appointment, then emailing the clinician and the patient the booking link.

"The complexity of the booking process had been a barrier to using telehealth as the schedulers had to work quite hard to make it work. We wanted to make it as painless and seamless as possible," says Elder.

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A workflow tool was built within WebPAS which required no extra clicks for a booking clerk. They schedule telehealth appointments the same way as in-person appointments, and the system automatically sends the patient an email with a link to their video appointment.

This appointment information is automatically added to the clinic list so clinicians can start the meeting from within the MCP with just one click.

"It's a streamlined process, with all the technical work done in the background when the appointment is booked" Elder says.

The proof of concept (POC) started in the renal, oncology and respiratory departments ,but was later opened up to other keen early adopters across several services.

Clinicians decide which appointments are appropriate to be done via telehealth. Schedulers then go through a readiness check with patients, ensuring they have a suitable device and reliable internet connection.

At the time of appointment, the patient can click on a link within their booking email that takes them straight to their video consult meeting room.

Graham Fraher, Te Whatu Ora a Toi Bay of Plenty clinical applications team leader, says the first phase of the POC involved 50 telehealth bookings being made with the new tool and identified some "good learnings".

The original business case was based on creating telehealth only clinics, but this did not support clinical workflows or clinician preferences. This development work now supports telehealth appointments as part of a regular clinic schedule in a mixed-model approach.

“We're looking at developing a second phase and having an evolving model where we keep it in a development state and keep improving and learning: it's an exciting path to be on," says Fraher.

The tool is agnostic, so it could be plugged into any video conferencing solution.

“We are really happy to share our work to help inform others in their approach", adds Fraher.



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