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Greatly increased Victorian outpatient private psychiatric care during the COVID-19 pandemic: new MBS-telehealth-item and face-to-face psychiatrist office-based services from April–September 2020.
- Source :
- Australasian Psychiatry; Aug2021, Vol. 29 Issue 4, p423-429, 7p
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Objective: The Australian Federal government introduced new COVID-19-Psychiatrist-Medicare-Benefits-Schedule (MBS) telehealth-items to assist with providing private specialist care. We investigate private psychiatrists' uptake of telehealth, and face-to-face consultations for April–September 2020 for the state of Victoria, which experienced two consecutive waves of COVID-19. We compare these to the same 6 months in 2019. Method: MBS-item-consultation data were extracted for video, telephone and face-to-face consultations with a psychiatrist for April–September 2020 and compared to face-to-face consultations in the same period of 2019 Victoria-wide, and for all of Australia. Results: Total Victorian psychiatry consultations (telehealth and face-to-face) rose by 19% in April–September 2020 compared to 2019, with telehealth comprising 73% of this total. Victoria's increase in total psychiatry consultations was 5% higher than the all-Australian increase. Face-to-face consultations in April–September 2020 were only 46% of the comparative 2019 consultations. Consultations of less than 15 min duration (87% telephone and 13% video) tripled in April–September 2020, compared to the same period last year. Video consultations comprised 41% of total telehealth provision: these were used mainly for new patient assessments and longer consultations. Conclusions: During the pandemic, Victorian private psychiatrists used COVID-19-MBS-telehealth-items to substantially increase the number of total patient care consultations for 2020 compared to 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10398562
- Volume :
- 29
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Australasian Psychiatry
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 151880409
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1177/10398562211006133