The potential of telemedicine for home nursing in Queensland

The potential for telemedicine in home nursing was examined by retrospectiv ely reviewing the case-notes relating to home visits made by nurses in Quee nsland. The case-notes of 166 clients were randomly selected from 10 domici liary nursing centres run by the Blue Care nursing organization in south-ea st Queensland. Two experienced community registered nurses independently un dertook a retrospective review of the case-notes. Each reviewer made an ind ependent judgement as to whether any of the home nursing visits in the epis ode of care could have been conducted by telemedicine. Visits requiring han ds-on care were deemed to be unsuitable for telemedicine. A total of 12,630 home visits were reviewed. The median number of visits per client was 27 ( range 1-722). The mean age of the clients was 72 years (range 2-93 years). A total of 1521 home visits (12%) were judged suitable for telemedicine. Th ere was no significant difference in suitability between males (13%) and fe males (12%). Care interventions suitable for telemedicine were more likely to be those of a supportive, educational or review nature. Forty per cent o f clients lived up to 5 km from the home nursing centre, 33% lived 5-10 km from the centre and 27% lived over 10 km from the centre. The results of th e present study confirm the potential for telemedicine in home nursing in A ustralia.