SURVEY: The rise of remote consultations

Summary:

Tea-breaker poll results: how the pandemic has influenced the use of remote and face-to-face OH consultations

Our latest Tea-breaker poll demonstrates how the use of telephonic/remote OH consultations has been transformed since the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the attitudes of OH professionals have also changed. John Ballard reports the findings and considers the available evidence on the effectiveness of remote healthcare consultations and its application to OH.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed occupational health (OH) professionals’ attitude to remote OH consultations, our latest Tea-breaker poll finds. More than three-quarters (78%) of OH professionals now say that telephonic/remote consultations are, in general, at least as effective as face-to-face consultations. A poll carried out before the pandemic found that 62% of respondents rated them as inferior to face-to-face consultations.

Poll to poll

Just over six years ago, we conducted an online Tea-breaker poll to determine OH professionals’ views on the value of telephonic/remote consultations (ie carried out by telephone, smartphone or online videoconference) compared to those done face to face¹…

 

John Ballard is editor of Occupational Health at Work.

Author: Ballard J

Tags agency workers COVID-19

Occupational Health at Work February/March 2023 (vol. 19/5) pp26-36

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