The future of digital medicine is still uncertain, especially with digital hospital units.
With the expansion of digital health, the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s Virtual Hospital strategy has been leading the way for the future of digital care, delegates at the University of Sydney’s Emerging Health Policy & Economics Research Conference heard this week.
The initiative, established in 2023, has since seen high rates of patient satisfaction and increased accessibility for in-home patient care within the Sydney district.
Further info about this new form of care was discussed at the conference, with a focus on how it could improve data flow across types of care.
“All virtual care services are managed and organised with the intention of taking advantage of economy’s scale and scope,” PhD student Enrico Gallo stated.
“This model has a lot of challenges in the implementation, especially related to the data integration with traditional hospitals.
“What I’ve we’ve noticed with my research group is that there is a lack of policy models based on real world virtual hospitals, because this is a very recent model.”
Currently, much of the efficiency data from the RPA virtual unit is still quite raw, given that it is one of the first initiatives of its kind.
Researchers from the University of Sydney said this has made it difficult to determine the efficiency of the program with no information from RPA as to whether the virtual unit was reducing the length of stay for patients.
Cost efficiency is also a current grey area, with the program needing to continue longer before an effective evaluation can be given.
As for how it is regulated, the RPA virtual unit still adheres to the same accreditation requirements and regulatory standards as traditional hospital care regarding workforce performance metrics.
“What emerged is that the RPA virtual showed highly, the ability to change in the demands due to multi service flexibility, and there’s potential to serve larger geographic areas,” Mr Gallo said.
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“This is important for the policy implications, and we will see that later regarding staff and service delivery impacts.”
Mr Gallo’s research team has also outlined the potential impact of the unit on hospital workloads with transitions to the unit expected to increase pressure due to unfamiliarity with the new system.
“What emerges from the evaluations made at the RPA virtual is that there’s a value for patients, mainly at the beginning, because for them, the advantage is immediate,” said Mr Gallo.
“This is not enough sometimes for the policy makers, because they want a cost-effective service.
“But the idea is not just to improve the quality of the delivery of healthcare, but to improve the effectiveness from the point of view of the healthcare system.”