The Bureau of Health Information (BHI) has released a new short-form report that reveals important new insights into patients' experiences of virtual outpatient care in NSW.
The report, The Insights Series – Patients' experiences of virtual care in 2022, is based on the results of a survey of more than 2,300 patients who had at least one virtual care appointment (over the telephone or by video call) with a NSW public hospital outpatient clinic in late 2022.
Most patients were very positive about their virtual care with hospital outpatient clinics in the previous 12 months, with around nine in 10 patients (92%) rating it as either 'very good' or 'good'. For most survey questions, ratings were high and results either improved or remained stable compared with the 2021 survey.
Advanced analyses showed that across most questions, patients offered similar ratings of their virtual care regardless of their age, education, location (urban/rural) or whether they had a longstanding health condition.
However, BHI Chief Executive Dr Diane Watson said there were some differences across patient groups.
“For a range of questions, patients were significantly less positive if they speak a language other than English at home, had an audio-only appointment rather than video, or had not seen the health professional(s) before," Dr Watson said.
For example:
Patients who speak a language other than English at home were about half as likely to rate their overall care with hospital outpatient clinics in the past 12 months as ‘very good’, compared with those who speak English.
Patients who had an audio-only appointment (compared with those who used video) were about half as likely to say they were 'definitely' involved in decisions about their care and treatment at most recent virtual care hospital outpatient clinic appointment.
Patients whose most recent virtual care hospital outpatient clinic appointment was with a health professional they had seen before were almost twice as likely to say the care and treatment received through virtual care in past 12 months ‘definitely’ helped.
"The use of virtual care has continued to expand in recent years and most patients are telling us their experiences are positive,” said Dr Watson. “These results help us better understand those experiences and identify any areas where further improvements can be made."
The report is accompanied by data tables that provide results for all performance questions at NSW level, and for selected respondent characteristics, including comparisons with the 2021 results. For example, for virtual care provided by hospital outpatient clinics:
Around eight in 10 patients (83%) said they were ‘definitely’ involved in decisions about care and treatment at their most recent appointment (up 6 percentage points on 2021).
Around seven in 10 patients (71%) said the care and treatment in the past 12 months ‘definitely’ helped (up 6 percentage points on 2021).