‘A Friend in the Corner’: supporting people at home in the last year of life via telephone and video consultation—an evaluation

Abstract

A nurse led, 24/7 telephone and video consultation service can provide valuable support for patients identified to be in the last year of life and for their carers. The line enabled them to feel supported and remain in their place of residence, hence reducing the pressure for avoidable hospital admissions and use of other services. Providing this service may encourage healthcare professionals to identify more patients approaching the last year of life, widening support offered to this group of patients beyond those known to specialist palliative care services.

Understanding patient requirements for technology systems that support pain management in palliative care services: A qualitative study

“…ICT introduced at this earlier stage may be driven by the likelihood of less advanced disease with fewer complications. For palliative care patients that engage with technology, benefits to its use are only beginning to be understood, such as enabling patients to feel supported and remain in their place of residence (22). For those with pain, ICT systems are being developed to increase selfmanagement (through incorporating education components and information provision) (23) but their effectiveness for pain management has not yet been determined.…”

Advantages and limitations of virtual online consultations in a NHS acute trust: the VOCAL mixed-methods study

“…45 The literature on telephone consultations consists largely of small and heterogeneous primary studies, most of which had practical challenges or methodological flaws. Systematic reviews have tended to conclude that, although telephone contact may allow minor problems to be dealt with without a face-to-face visit (and sometimes with apparent cost-savings), it may miss rare but serious conditions and/or lead to higher rates of face-to-face visits in the days following.…”

“…34,35 One study combined telephone consulting with video consultation to support patients receiving palliative care and reported that the combination offered both practical support and reassurance. 45 …”

“…home-based and telemedicine services, 84 or telephone and video consultation 45 ) show that the efficacy, acceptability and costs of such services vary considerably.…”

“…exploring issues of usability and acceptability). 45,[99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113] Many focus specifically on the clinical use of Skype, 91,[114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123] either on its own or in combination with other technologies [e.g. WhatsApp (WhatsApp Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA) messaging 124 or FaceTime 125,126 ].…”