JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

Many allied health services now provide both telehealth and in-person services following a rapid integration of telehealth as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about how decisions are made about which clinical appointments to provide via telehealth vs in-person.

Objective:

Objective:

To explore (1) - clinicians' decision making when contemplating telehealth for their clients, including the factors they consider and how they weigh up these different factors, and (2) the clinicians’ perceptions of telehealth utility outside of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Methods:

Methods:

We used reflexive thematic analysis with data collected from focus groups with 16 paediatric community-based allied health clinicians from the disciplines of speech pathology, occupational therapy, social work, psychology and counselling.

Results:

Results:

The findings indicated that decision making was complex with interactions across four broad categories: technology, clients and families, clinical services, and clinicians. Three themes described their perceptions of telehealth use outside of COVID-19 lockdowns: “I use telehealth flexibly”, “telehealth can be superior to in-person service”, and “I don’t want telehealth to fully replace in-person services”.

Conclusions:

Conclusions:

The findings highlight the complexity of decision making in a community allied health setting and the challenges experienced by clinicians when reconciling empirical evidence with their own clinical experience.