Fighting the Same Battles on a New Battleground: Embedding Technologies in a Virtual Care Environment

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Digital Health
• Healthcare Technology Implementation

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for remote patient monitoring solutions.
• Virtual care technologies became crucial for managing patients outside traditional healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify environmental barriers and facilitators for developing and implementing virtual care technologies.
• To understand the context of rapid technology deployment during a pandemic.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study involving interviews with eight staff members at an Australian virtual hospital.
• Exploration of the challenges and enablers in a fast-paced virtual care environment.

Main Results:

• Key facilitators included a supportive organizational culture and strong leadership.
• Identified barriers comprised interoperability issues, legislative constraints, and unrealistic clinician expectations.
• Lack of single sign-on and hot-desking created additional workload for staff.

Conclusions:

• Findings align with existing research on healthcare technology design and implementation.
• The high-pressure pandemic context amplified known barriers but also fostered a learning culture.