RPA Sydney - virtual care: providing telehealth services in Australia
Steve Neville
May 18, 20201 min read
Steve Neville
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Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, one of the largest and busiest in the country, has been monitoring COVID-19 patients at home. As of mid-May, the hospital has cared for 446 patients who tested positive for the virus and 156 other COVID-negative patients in quarantine.
Rapid Growth in RPA Virtual Hospital ‘Visits’
The Sydney Local Health District has had to rapidly scale its RPA virtual service, which started as a trial in March 2020 for palliative care and cystic fibrosis patients in February 2020. Then, it had two full-time equivalent nurses on staff. Now, the team has over 30 nurses and another team of doctors, all of whom had to be trained for virtual workflows, eMR documentation, and scheduling remote appointments.
The technology that supports the service includes TempTraq temperature sensors monitored in real-time by nurses at RPA's Care Centre and iHealth's pulse oximeters. The RPA Virtual Hospital (RPA virtual) combines these with Pexip for patient video consultations.
Remote Health Solutions in Australia
“There was a rapid redesign to provide virtual healthcare to patients with COVID-19 managed in the community,” Eleni Efthymiou said, RPA virtual health information manager. “This is for stable patients to be monitored at home and includes clear escalation processes.”
