Introduction
Community Nursing Service (CNS) has long been providing holistic community care aiming to empower patients/ carers for self-care and reduce hospital utilization. Tele-Visit, an innovative strategy of TeleHealth development in CNS, serves as an adjunct to primary mode of CNS outreach service to improve patient outcomes and experience, and reduce workforce pressure. A pilot of Tele-Visit was launched in PMH CNS and UCH CNS to evaluate its feasibility.
Objectives
1. To improve access to care
2. To offer options for patient’s choice
3. To improve clinical outcomes and patient experience
4. To better manage growing service demand
Methodology
With the support from KWC Smart Hospital Management Committee, HA Cluster General Managers (Nursing), HA Information Technology Team and Finance Team, the proposed pilot drafted by the Workgroup on TeleHealth in CNS was commenced in August 2022. The target sample size was 24 involving 12 patients for disease management on Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and 12 patients for wound management on pressure injury (PI) and leg ulcer (LU). Patients under CNS care who were clinically stable with informed consent to Tele-Visit arrangement and good compliance to treatment plan were recruited. Patients were selected by primary nurse/ team in-charge according to a set of criteria. Face-to-face home visitation and Tele-Visit were provided according to a preset schedule. Tele-Visit and patient registration was conducted via the one-stop mobile app, HA Go.
Result & Outcome
The pilot was completed in May 2023. 6 COPD patients, 6 DM patients, 4 patients with PI and 1 patient with LU were recruited. The results were appealing in terms of user experience, pre- and post-empowerment scores, clinical parameters and hospital utilization. Aiming to achieve a better project evaluation, an extended pilot of Tele-Visit had commenced in the whole corporate CNS in October 2023.
