Australian health professionals’ social media (Web 2.0) adoption trends: early 21st century health care delivery and practice promotion

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne T. Usher
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Initial Data ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Web 2.0 Technologies ◽  
Australian Health

This study was concerned with indentifying reasons behind patterns of social media (Web 2.0) usage associated with eight of Australia’s major health professions. Attention was given to uncovering some of the more significant motivations for the resistance or adoption of Web 2.0 technologies for health care delivery and practice promotion by Australian health professionals. Surveys were developed from a common set of questions with specific variations between professions negotiated with professional health societies. Survey questions were constructed in an attempt to identify Web 2.0 adoption trends. An online survey (www.limesurvey.org) was used to collect data. Initial data preparation involved the development of one integrated SPSS file to incorporate all responses from the eight surveys undertaken. Initial data analysis applied Frequencies and Crosstabs to the identified groups and provided a profile of respondents by key business and demographic characteristics. Of the 935 respondents, 9.5% of participants indicated that they used Web 2.0 for their professional work, 19.1% of them did not use it for work but used it for their personal needs and 71.3% of them did not use Web 2.0 at all. Participants have indicated that the main reason for ‘choosing not to adopt’ Web 2.0 applications as a way of delivering health care to their patients is due to the health professionals’ lack of understanding of Web 2.0 (83.3%), while the main reason for ‘choosing to adopt’ Web 2.0 applications is the perception of Web 2.0 as a quick and effective method of communication (73.0%). This study has indicated that Australian health professionals ‘choose not to adopt’ Web 2.0 usage as a way of delivering health care primarily due to ‘a lack of understanding as to how social media would be used in health care’ (83.3%). This study identifies that Australian health professionals are interacting with Web 2.0 technologies in their private lives but are failing to see how such technologies might be used throughout their professions. Australian health professionals are willing to undertake online educational courses (n = 553, 58%) designed to upskill them about how Web 2.0 may be used for practice promotion and health care delivery.

scholarly journals How Australian Health Care Services Adapted to Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of Telehealth Professionals

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Taylor ◽  
Liam J. Caffery ◽  
Hailay Abrha Gesesew ◽  
Alice King ◽  
Abdel-rahman Bassal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Australian Health ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Society Newsletter ◽  
Chi Square Analysis

Background: In Australia, telehealth services were used as an alternative method of health care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a realist analysis of a survey of health professionals, we have sought to identify the underlying mechanisms that have assisted Australian health services adapt to the physical separation between clinicians and patients.Methods: Using a critical realist ontology and epistemology, we undertook an online survey of health professionals subscribing to the Australian Telehealth Society newsletter. The survey had close- and open-ended questions, constructed to identify contextual changes in the operating environment for telehealth services, and assess the mechanisms which had contributed to these changes. We applied descriptive and McNemar's Chi-square analysis for the close-ended component of the survey, and a reflexive thematic analysis approach for the open-ended questions which were framed within the activity based funding system which had previously limited telehealth services to regional Australia.Results: Of the 91 respondents most (73%) reported a higher volume of telephone-based care since COVID and an increase in use of video consultations (60% of respondents). Respondents felt that the move to provide care using telehealth services had been a “forced adoption” where clinicians began to use telehealth services (often for the first time) to maintain health care. Respondents noted significant changes in managerial and medical culture which supported the legitimisation of telehealth services as a mode of access to care. The support of leaders and the use personal and organisational networks to facilitate the operation of telehealth service were felt to be particularly valuable. Access to, and reliability of, the technology were considered extremely important for services. Respondents also welcomed the increased availability of more human and financial resources.Conclusions: During the pandemic, mechanisms that legitimise practise, build confidence, support relationships and supply resources have fostered the use of telehealth. This ongoing interaction between telehealth services, contexts and mechanisms is complex. The adoption of telehealth access to enable physically separated care, may mark a “new context;” or it could be that once the pandemic passes, previous policies and practises will re-assert themselves and curb support for telehealth-enabled care.

When Clock Time Governs Interaction: How Time Influences Health Professionals’ Intersectoral Collaboration

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (13) ◽  
pp. 2059-2070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Bendix Andersen ◽  
Kirsten Beedholm ◽  
Raymond Kolbæk ◽  
Kirsten Frederiksen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Elderly Patients ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Intersectoral Collaboration ◽  
Clock Time ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Patient Pathways

When setting up patient pathways that cross health care sectors, professionals in emergency units strive to fulfill system requirements by creating efficient patient pathways that comply with standards for length of stay. We conducted an ethnographic field study, focusing on health professionals’ collaboration, of 10 elderly patients with chronic illnesses, following them from discharge to their home or other places where they received health care services. We found that clock time not only governed the professionals’ ways of collaborating, but acceleration of patient pathways also became an overall goal in health care delivery. Professionals’ efforts to save time came to represent a “monetary value,” leading to speedier planning of patient pathways and consequent risks of disregarding important issues when treating and caring for elderly patients. We suggest that such issues are significant to the future planning and improvement of patient pathways that involve elderly citizens who are in need of intersectoral health care delivery.

The Expanding Role of Clinical Sociology in Australia

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-62
Author(s):  
Les Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Delivery System ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Care Delivery System ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Australian Health

This paper introduces clinical sociology as a humanistic, multidisciplinary specialty seeking to improve the quality of people's lives. It traces the emergence of clinical sociology in the United States in 1931, and in Australia in the late 1950s in the context of the pioneering clinical sociology research into social transformation at Australian society's margins by Neville Yeomans. A contemporary illustration is given demonstrating how a biopyschosocial model of health is now being implemented as world best-evidence-based practice within the Australian health care delivery system. Further arguments, citing national and international evidence based on sociotherapeutic models of intervention, support a proposal for the Australian Sociology Association to engage in dialogues with health care agencies with the view of establishing clinical sociologists as an integral part of the Australian health-care delivery system.

Empirical exploration of brilliance in health care: perceptions of health professionals

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Karimi ◽  
Ann Dadich ◽  
Liz Fulop ◽  
Sandra G. Leggat ◽  
Jiri Rada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Lexical Analysis ◽  
Professional Perspective

Objective The aim of the present study was to develop a positive organisational scholarship in health care approach to health management, informed by health managers and health professionals’ experiences of brilliance in health care delivery. Methods A sample of postgraduate students with professional and/or management experience within a health service was invited to share their experiences of brilliant health services via online discussions and a survey running on the SurveyMonkey platform. A lexical analysis of student contributions was conducted using the individual as the unit of analysis. Results Using lexical analysis, the examination of themes in the concept map, the relationships between themes and the relationships between concepts identified ‘care’ as the most important concept in recognising brilliance in health care, followed by the concepts of ‘staff’ and ‘patient’. Conclusions The research presents empirical material to support the emergence of an evidence-based health professional perspective of brilliance in health management. The findings support other studies that have drawn on both quantitative and qualitative materials to explore brilliance in health care. Pockets of brilliance have been previously identified as catalysts for changing health care systems. Both quality, seen as driven from the outside, and excellence, driven from within individuals, are necessary to produce brilliance. What is known about the topic? The quest for brilliance in health care is not easy but essential to reinvigorating and energising health professionals to pursue the highest possible standards of health care delivery. What does this paper add? Using an innovative methodology, the present study identified the key drivers that health care professionals believe are vital to moving in the direction of identifying brilliant performance. What are the implications for practitioners? This work presents evidence on the perceptions of leadership and management practices associated with brilliant health management. Lessons learned from exceptionally well-delivered services contain different templates for change than those dealing with failures, errors, misconduct and the resulting negativity.

Allied Health Workers in Pediatrics

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 924-924
Author(s):  
Arnold H. Matlin
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Private Practice ◽  
Allied Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Trained Personnel

I strongly disagree with the opinions of Dr. Pick in regard to the appropriate role of allied health workers. Dr. Pick is concerned with the private practice of pediatrics, while to me the more important issue is the overall health care of children. In view of the worsening crisis in health care delivery, we can no longer afford the luxury of letting highly trained health professionals perform functions that can be equally well performed by less highly trained personnel.

scholarly journals The Perioperative Patient Experience During COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 000313482110611
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Dippre ◽  
Kristen M. Quinn ◽  
Melinda Walto ◽  
Rupak Mukherjee ◽  
Prabhakar K. Baliga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Patient Experience ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Old Patients

Background Access to elective surgical procedures has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We sought to understand the patient experience by developing and distributing an anonymous online survey to those who underwent non-emergency surgery at a large academic tertiary medical center between March and October 2020. Results The survey was completed by 184 patients; the majority were white (84%), female (74.6%), and ranged from 18 to 88 years old. Patients were likely unaware of case delay as only 23.6% reported a delay, 82% of which agreed with that decision. Conversely, 44% felt that the delay negatively impacted their quality of life. Overall, 82.7% of patients indicated high satisfaction with their care. African American patients more often indicated a “neutral” vs “satisfactory” hospital experience ( P < .05) and considered postponing their surgery ( P < .01). Interestingly, younger patients (<60) were more likely than older (≥60) patients to note anxiety associated with having surgery during the pandemic ( P < .01), feeling unprepared for discharge ( P < .02), not being allowed visitors ( P < .02), and learning about the spread of COVID-19 from health care providers ( P < .02). Discussion These results suggest that patients are resilient and accepting of changes to health care delivery during the current pandemic; however, certain patient populations may have higher levels of anxiety which could be addressed by their care provider. These findings can help inform and guide ongoing and future health care delivery adaptations in response to care disruptions.

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