Identifying Public Healthcare Priorities in Virtual Care for Older Adults: A Participatory Research Study

Dai Pu (), Victoria Palmer, Louise Greenstock, Cathie Pigott, Anna Peeters, Lena Sanci, Michele Callisaya, Colette Browning, Wendy Chapman and Terry Haines
Additional contact information
Dai Pu: School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Frankston, VIC 3199, Australia
Victoria Palmer: Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
Louise Greenstock: Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre, Warrnambool, VIC 3280, Australia
Cathie Pigott: Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia
Anna Peeters: Western Alliance Academic Health Science Centre, Warrnambool, VIC 3280, Australia
Lena Sanci: Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
Michele Callisaya: Peninsula Clinical School, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Frankston, VIC 3199, Australia
Colette Browning: Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Federation University, Ballarat, VIC 3350, Australia
Wendy Chapman: Centre for Digital Transformation of Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
Terry Haines: School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Frankston, VIC 3199, Australia

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: There has been increasing adoption and implementation of virtual healthcare in recent years, especially with COVID-19 impacting the world. As a result, virtual care initiatives may not undergo stringent quality control processes to ensure that they are appropriate to their context and meet sector needs. The two objectives of this study were to identify virtual care initiatives for older adults currently in use in Victoria and virtual care challenges that could be prioritised for further investigation and scale-up and to understand why certain virtual care initiatives and challenges are prioritised over others for investigation and scale-up. Methods: This project used an Emerging Design approach. A survey of public health services in the state of Victoria in Australia was first carried out, followed by the co-production of research and healthcare priorities with key stakeholders in the areas of primary care, hospital care, consumer representation, research, and government. The survey was used to gather existing virtual care initiatives for older adults and any associated challenges. Co-production processes consisted of individual ratings of initiatives and group-based discussions to identify priority virtual care initiatives and challenges to be addressed for future scale-up. Stakeholders nominated their top three virtual initiatives following discussions. Results: Telehealth was nominated as the highest priority initiative type for scaling up, with virtual emergency department models of care nominated as the highest priority within this category. Remote monitoring was voted as a top priority for further investigations. The top virtual care challenge was data sharing across services and settings, and the user-friendliness of virtual care platforms was nominated as the top priority for further investigation. Conclusions: Stakeholders prioritised public health virtual care initiatives that are easy to adopt and address needs that are perceived to be more immediate (acute more so than chronic care). Virtual care initiatives that incorporate more technology and integrated elements are valued, but more information is needed to inform their potential scale-up.

Keywords: telemedicine; COVID-19; public health; healthcare quality assurance; community-based participatory research; stakeholder engagement; aged; scaling up; shared decision making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4015/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/4015/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:4015-:d:1078633

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().