Early practice of use of video consultations in rehabilitation of hand injuries in children and adults: Content, acceptability, and cost-effectiveness
Video consultation was implemented as a new service in a hospital hand therapy setting. To describe the first year’s practice of video consultations in the rehabilitation of upper extremity injuries, evaluate the acceptability, and investigate economic effects. Iterative design including economic ev...
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| Published in: | Journal of hand therapy Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 3 - 11 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
United States
Elsevier Inc
01-01-2024
Elsevier Limited |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Video consultation was implemented as a new service in a hospital hand therapy setting.
To describe the first year’s practice of video consultations in the rehabilitation of upper extremity injuries, evaluate the acceptability, and investigate economic effects.
Iterative design including economic evaluation.
Using the framework early health technology assessment, 13 hand therapists described characteristics of 99 video consultations, under predefined headlines: the patients’ municipally, adult vs child, time use, technical, content, and usefulness compared to physical consultations. The text was coded and categorized according to 22 techniques or tools used by hand therapists, and challenges were identified. Acceptability was assessed on a three-graded adjectival scale. To illustrate the costs associated with video vs physical consultations, we drafted different scenarios based on the data and stakeholder insights.
Of 99 planned video consultations (16 with children), 88 were completed. Techniques or tools most frequently used were the performance of exercises (n = 55), orthoses (n = 26), and daily activities (n = 23). Technical challenges were common, and observation of children could be difficult. Eleven of the completed consultations were rated as not acceptable and 77 as acceptable and as either useful (n = 28) or very useful (n = 49). Four drafted scenarios showed cost savings of video consultations for the health institution and society, highest at longer travel distances and in other cases where the patient could claim refunds related to travel and time away from work and home.
The results show therapeutic possibilities and points to areas for improvements and illustrate settings where the use of video may save costs for the health institution and society.
•The therapists used a variety of techniques and tools in the video consultations.•They assessed most of the video consultations as acceptable and of good quality.•Video consultations with children had specific challenges.•The video consultations saved costs for health institutions, patients, and society.•The cost-effectiveness increased with longer travel distances. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 0894-1130 1545-004X |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jht.2023.05.010 |