Authors (including presenting author) :
Tracy STY (1), Shadow NHW(1), Ewert TYW(1), Adrian LKY(1), Frances LTM(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, Hong Kong
Introduction :
Community Occupational Therapy (OT) service in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital provides home visits to facilitate patients’ safe discharge from hospital, independent living and community reintegration. The major domains include activities of daily living (ADL) training, carer training, home modification and prescription of assistive aids. In the pandemic of COVID-19, in order to reduce staff’s and patient’s risk of infection, Telecare has been developing to provide service through phone call, texting and video conference. Follow up home visit was started to adopt telecare mode to provide OT services on a pilot basis.
Objectives :
To evaluate the effectiveness of Tele follow up on carer skills, aids prescription and home modification after initial home visit
Methodology :
Post home visit Tele follow up was started since December 2020. Community cases that required follow up on carer skills, aids prescription and/or home modification were screened and selected for Tele follow up. Tele follow up was conducted with patient or patient’s carer through phone call, Whatsapp or Zoom. The content of tele follow up included reinforcement of carer skills, application and maintenance of prescribed aids, home modification outcome, ADL and home safety advices. Patient/carer’s query would also be addressed during the Tele follow up. Satisfaction survey was conducted at the end of Tele follow up.
Result & Outcome :
95 participants (24 patients, 71 patient’s carer) were recruited. 88% agreed or strongly agreed that Telecare provides effective advice on home modification or aids prescription. 87% agreed or strongly agreed that Telecare enhances patient’s functional independence and increase carer’s confidence in taking care of patient. Under Telecare approach, the number of subsequent home visit was significantly reduced by 67%. (69 subsequent home visits from December 2019 to November 2020; 23 subsequent home visits from December 2020 to November 2021). Decreased number of on-site home visit therefore reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection. Tele follow up can largely reduce the time and transportation cost of on-site home visit. To conclude, Telecare is feasible and effective for post home visit follow up. Further exploration on technological support to facilitate Telecare service delivery is suggested.
