Working Towards an Optimal Allied Health Telehealth Service: A Model for Improvement.

Abstract

Beginning in 2018, Mater Health was enacting its next stage of strategic planning focusing on services designed around consumers and strengthening technology to improve access to care and information for delivering better outcomes. Telehealth was part of the strategy. Allied health services sought to meet future community needs by increasing the number of its offsite or virtual services without the need for expensive infrastructure. Our aim was to reinforce allied health professional capability in telehealth, as part of sustainable allied health telehealth delivery. We used a Model for Improvement that included use of the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles, incorporating a community of practice and evaluation framework with strategies such as appreciative inquiry designed to enhance communication and understanding among team members. Telehealth has proven of great value to health services and consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scaling up of telehealth during the pandemic resulted in recognition of multiple factors needing to be addressed for telehealth to be sustainable. Our work provides insights into staff and consumer perspectives of TH, forming a basis for future telehealth research.