Virtual Care
Virtual care is any interaction between a patient and a health professional that may or may not occur in real-time. Virtual care is delivered remotely using digital technologies such as audio and video calls, remote monitoring devices or mobile applications.
How we are improving virtual care
We completed a validation study on how we can further use virtual care to provide safe and quality health care.
Key findings included:
- There are unique risks in delivering virtual care and challenges in identifying and implementing safety and quality measures
- There are no nationally agreed guidance or definitions of terms for virtual care
- Virtual care provides opportunities for improved access to health care
- There is a need for resources to assist health care services to safely implement and optimise virtual care services
- The onset of COVID-19 forced a rapid expansion of virtual care with training, governance, and evaluation lagging behind
- Models of care delivered partially or entirely through virtual care have been initially driven by opportunity, but reflection from the sector has demonstrated a desire to further evaluate the value, appropriateness and quality of virtual care.
We will further work on delivering these key findings and improving virtual care.
Applying the Digital Mental Health Standards in virtual care
Our National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards improve the quality of digital mental health services, and to protect service users and their support people from harm.