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In group: Video consultations: how to set them up well, fast?

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  • Debbie Brazil posted an update in the group Video consultations: how to set them up well, fast? 3 years, 12 months ago

    Stacey is right that I piloted a video-consultation within a care home, now extended to a second one. Very successful – the care home love it.

    It was set up as a permanent link between the care home and the hospital, for the care home to request advice in an emergency situation from a nurse-led team based in ED. Without this, the care home might have called 999 and often the resident would be taken to ED. The benefit of providing virtual advice was that it reduced the number of times that residents with dementia were taken out of their familiar environment to hospital for an ED assessment. We know that these often result in an admission and a length of stay of several days. We know that residents with dementia can get very confused and distressed when taken out of that familiar environment. The nurses could give advice such as rehydrate the patient or check for a UTI, and they could check back in again in a few hours – so virtual observations almost.

    The consultation was generally initiated by the care home staff who would lead the consultation sitting beside the resident. As it was an emergency consultation, issues of consent are different from an elective situation such as an outpatient clinic.

    But there are benefits of assessing a patient with dementia in their own home rather than bringing them in to a hospital site.

    • Hi Debbie, thank you for your reply and apologies for my late response. Interesting to hear about your care home project and pleased that it has such positive outcomes. With covid there is more talk around virtual dementia assessment and diagnosis but it will be interesting to see if this continues to be a useful method afterwards.