RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Telehealth-based diagnostic testing in general practice during the COVID-19 pandemic: an observational study
JF BJGP Open
JO BJGP Open
FD Royal College of General Practitioners
SP BJGPO.2021.0123
DO 10.3399/BJGPO.2021.0123
A1 Rae-Anne Hardie
A1 Gorkem Sezgin
A1 Chisato Imai
A1 Emma Gault
A1 Precious McGuire
A1 Muhammad Kashif Sheikh
A1 Christopher Pearce
A1 Tony Badrick
A1 Andrew Georgiou
YR 2021
UL http://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2021/11/24/BJGPO.2021.0123.abstract
AB Background Since the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020, health technologies have been rapidly scaled up to ensure access to care. A significant innovation has been telehealth in general practice. Now widespread, it remains unknown how this shift to virtual care has impacted on quality-of-care indicators such as pathology testing and diagnosis.Aim To undertake a comparison of telehealth and face-to-face general practice consultations to: identify if there were differences in the proportion of pathology test referrals from 2019-2020; and quantify any change in pathology test collection and follow-up patterns.Design and Setting Retrospective observational study of routinely collected electronic patient data from 807 general practices across New South Wales and Victoria, Australia.Method Multivariate generalised estimating equation models were used to estimate the proportion of pathology test referrals for: overall, face-to-face, and telehealth consultations. Pathology test follow-up was described through median (and interquartile range (IQR)) time.Results Pathology test referrals declined during periods of high COVID-19 cases, falling from 10.8% in February 2020 to a low 4.5% during the first peak in April. Overall, pathology test referrals were lower for telehealth than face-to-face. Median time between referral and test collection was 3 days (IQR 1–14) for telehealth and 1 day (IQR 0–7) for face-to-face.Conclusion For telehealth to become part of routine care, it is crucial that gaps in functionality, including difficulty in test referral processes, be addressed. Quality improvements supporting care practices will ensure clinicians’ workflows are supported and patients receive diagnostic testing.