Telehealth - Cornerstone of Covid-19 community care

Dr Silvia Pfeiffer published an opinion piece with Pulse+IT about how we can support COVID-19 patients in the near future when care for mild cases is transferred to GPs. 

The federal government’s recent announcement giving responsibility for dealing with Covid patients mainly to GP practices includes an implication of broadening the use of telehealth.

Not only are patients expected to isolate at home, but GP practices are expected to look after patients in their homes. To that end, patients will be supplied with medical devices such as pulse oximeters that they can quite easily be taught to use themselves.

The best way to make this work is for patients to self-monitor their vital signs and report the results to the practice nurse during a video call check in once or twice a day. The nurse can then decide whether the patient is deteriorating and needs to be transferred to the hospital for more intensive care, Pulse+IT and Silvia Pfeiffer discuss.

Read the full article here.