The family costs of attending hospital outpatient appointments via videoconference and in person.
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Date
2004-01-19
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Abstract
We compared the costs incurred by families attending outpatient appointments at the Royal Children s Hospital RCH in Brisbane with those incurred by families who had a consultation via videoconference in their regional area In each category 200 families were interviewed The median time spent travelling for videoconferences was 30 min compared with 80 min for face to face appointments Families interviewed in the outpatient department had travelled a median distance of 70 km while those who had a videoconference at the local hospital had travelled only 20 km It cost these families much more to attend an appointment at the RCH than to attend a videoconference Ninety six per cent of families 193 reported at least one of the following types of expense 150 families had expenses related to parking median A 10 dollars 156 had fuel expenses median A 10 dollars and 122 reported costs related to meals purchased at the RCH median A 10 dollars Only 21 families who had their appointment via local videoconference reported any additional costs Specialist appointments via videoconference were a more convenient and cheaper option for families living in regional areas of Queensland than the conventional method of attending outpatient appointments at the specialist hospital in Brisbane