Telepsychiatry and face-to-face psychiatric consultations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: patients being heard and seen.
Australas Psychiatry
; 30(2): 206-211, 2022 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1528653
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
The Australian federal government introduced additional Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) telehealth-items to facilitate care by private psychiatrists during the COVID-19 pandemic.METHOD:
We analysed private psychiatrists' uptake of video and telephone-telehealth, as well as total (telehealth and face-to-face) consultations for April 2020-April 2021. We compare these to face-to-face consultations for April 2018-April 2019. MBS-Item service data were extracted for COVID-19-psychiatrist-video- and telephone-telehealth item numbers and compared with face-to-face consultations for the whole of Australia.RESULTS:
Psychiatric consultation numbers (telehealth and face-to-face) were 13% higher during the first year of the pandemic compared with 2018-2019, with telehealth accounting for 40% of this total. Face-to-face consultations were 65% of the comparative number of 2018-2019 consultations. There was substantial usage of telehealth consultations during 2020-2021. The majority of telehealth involved short telephone consultations of ⩽15-30 min, while video was used more, in longer consultations.CONCLUSIONS:
Private psychiatrists and patients continued using the new telehealth-items during 2020-2021. This compensated for decreases in face-to-face consultations and resulted in an overall increase in the total patient contacts compared to 2018-2019.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Psychiatry
/
Telemedicine
/
COVID-19
Limits:
Aged
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Oceania
Language:
English
Journal:
Australas Psychiatry
Journal subject:
Psychiatry
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
10398562211046301
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