Authors (including presenting author) :
CHAN HY(1), WONG YP(1), LEE MSC(1), CHAN TC(1), WONG SPV(1), LEE ML(1), CHAN PK(2), CHIU KY(3)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Queen Mary Hospital
(2) Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Queen Mary Hospital
(3) Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, The University of Hong Kong
Introduction :
Pre-operative occupational therapy (OT) assessment adopts the concept of prehabilitation, which comprises of assessment of home environment and existing social support, management of patient’s expectation after operation. With pre-operation classes had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic to minimise social gathering, telecare has been used as an alternative.
Objectives :
This project aims to explore the feasibility of using telecare to conduct pre-operative Occupational Therapy assessment.
Methodology :
All patients referred from the total joint replacement pre-operation clinic at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong during January 2021 to July 2021 were included. Phone calls were made to patients by OT for risk identification, information provision and expectation management. Patients may return home measurement via whatsapp.
Result & Outcome :
A total of 115 patients were contacted in our pre-operation telecare service. As compared with face-to-face mode, it was found that (i) shorter time was allocated for each patient by telecare (average of 15.4 minutes) than face-to-face (16 to 20 minutes); (ii) more flexible schedule arranged by therapists for telecare, that promote better utilization of manpower; (iii) more efficient to receive home environment measurement from caregiver via telecare. However, less opportunity of sharing and discussion were available through individual telecare mode.
Due to the pandemic, the service mode of OT pre-operation assessment was changed from “face-to-face” to “telecare” in the form of phone call and Whatsapp”.
We found that use of telecare not only maintained the pre-operative OT services, but also brought some other benefits that may be considered as a part of regular pre-operative care in the future.
