Small rural hospitals

The CRE in Telehealth concluded in September 2019. Description of work below is not current.

Over 75% of Australia’s hospitals are located in regional or remote areas. They constitute 100% of Australia’s small acute hospitals, and 85% of small non-acute hospitals.

The lack of a full range of specialist services means that patients are often transferred to regional or metropolitan hospitals, which, over time creates a downward spiral of capability and challenges the hospital’s viability. A variety of telehealth strategies would provide some of this much-needed expertise, with the result that some transfers might be avoided and that the quality of care improved.

This could enable more people to be treated closer to home and reverse the trend away from non-viability.

Our work

Health-e-Regions

Sponsored by QGC, the Health-e-Regions project is delivering telehealth to the Western Downs in Queensland, specifically Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles. QGC have recently supported further expansion of the service into Tara and Wandoan.

This large project is enhancing knowledge of telehealth implementation in rural areas. Current studies focus on the following perspectives:

Planning for telehealth services
Community awareness and willingness to use telehealth
Health practitioners’ willingness to practise telehealth
Provision of allied health services in schools via telehealth
Review of models of care for rural locations

Systematic Literature Review

A comprehensive review of telehealth services in rural Australia.