Delivering inflammatory bowel disease care across distance

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients living in regional or remote Queensland are often disadvantaged by limited access to IBD specialist care. Telehealth clinics could potentially address this disparity and improve patient outcomes.

We report the impact of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) IBD telehealth clinics from March 2011 to December 2017, including patient satisfaction and healthcare activity.

Patient satisfaction surveys were collected prospectively between March 2011 and March 2012. Healthcare activity was assessed through occasions of service (OOS), number of enrolled patients on biologics and IBD related admissions to RBWH.

Overall, 3764 OOS were completed including 576 new patient and 3188 follow-up visits. Mean age at first telehealth visit was 44 years (range: 16-87 years). The IBD telehealth clinics were well accepted with 99% of the first 153 patients surveyed choosing to continue with telehealth and 94% rated the telehealth experience as very good or excellent. The net number of patients under active review increased from 125 patients in 2011 to 345 patients in 2017. Enrolled patients on biologics also increased from 9 patients in 2011 to 63 patients in 2017. There was an initial dip in annual IBD related admissions to RBWH in 2011 but these have progressively increased over time although the average length of inpatient stay annually has remained stable.

The RBWH IBD telehealth clinics have shown that telemedicine is well received and can be used successfully to deliver IBD specialist care to patients living in regional or remote areas.