Authors (including presenting author) :
Leung OKC(1), Pang JYW(1), Hui HL(2), Fung VH(1), Lau SKK(2), Siu RWC(2), Lam HCK(2), Leung SY(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Health Informatics Section, Hospital Authority (2)Information Technology Department, Hospital Authority
Introduction :
To manifest one of the initiatives of HA IT Strategy Plan on enhancing patient experience and health outcome, a one-stop TeleHealth service in HA Go is speedy developed for patients in year 2020 under the COVID-19 pandemic. As at Dec-2020, there were more than 209000 patients accessing personal health records in HA Go, a 1-year-old mobile app. Meanwhile, HA hospitals gradually started providing telehealth service to out-patients recently under the ‘new normal’ service delivery models to minimize cross infection.
Objectives :
(1)To provide patients a secured and simple platform to attend online consultation. (2)To streamline the delivery of patient care process in an alternative means for healthcare professionals.
Methodology :
With a challenging timeline, TeleHealth was developed as the minimal viable product (MVP) with essential features supporting the patient verification and doctor’s consultation through HA Go and Clinical Management System (CMS). Leveraging on the membership system and high security of HA Go, patients can attend the telehealth appointment by simply login to HA Go without any video meeting link and additional tools. A notification would be delivered to patients once the clinic session was ready, bringing patients to meet the nurses and doctors step-by-step, all via the one-stop service in HA Go. CMS serves as the integrated tool for healthcare professionals to start tele-consultation effectively via scanning the QR code with an iPad. Through the telehealth patient list in CMS, clinic colleagues can easily inform patients upon consultation time in a few clicks and view the telehealth status of individual patient at a glance. Furthermore, no additional software and setup was required.
Result & Outcome :
TeleHealth in HA Go is win-win to patients and healthcare professionals. Patients can attend online consultation securely and conveniently without worrying on the privacy and additional software installation. Building on the daily-used familiar CMS incorporating with clinic operational workflow, the healthcare professionals can enjoy the streamlined patient care delivery process in an alternative means. In Q1-Q2 2021, the TeleHealth in HA Go will be piloted to a few hospitals. The HA Go TeleHealth will be further enhanced to provide a unified user experience to our patients and healthcare professionals, e.g. TeleHealth for invited carers, robot reminding calls and TeleHealth waiting room features.
