New Zealand. Success of Healthline

Citation

(2002), "New Zealand. Success of Healthline", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 15 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2002.06215gab.010

New Zealand. Success of Healthline

New Zealand

Success of HealthlineKeywords: Healthline, Health information, Advice services

In June, New Zealand Ministry of Health spokesman, Dr Colin Feek, announced that Healthline, the free 24-hour health information and advice line, had been judged a success in a comprehensive evaluation of the service. He said:

"Healthline offers an effective and safe way for New Zealanders to get expert health advice. It couples the knowledge and skills of experienced health professionals with sophisticated technology to guide people to the most appropriate form of care."

Healthline has been piloted in Gisborne/East Coast, Canterbury, the West Coast and Northland since May 2000 at a total cost of $7.5 million. Healthline is accessible to all people in the four pilot areas, 24 hours a day. It provides::

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  an assessment of medical problems with advice on the most appropriate level of treatment and a recommended timeframe for doing so;

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  advice on selfcare and symptom management;

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  advice on the prevention of illness;

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  health information, for example information about diseases;

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  information about availability and location of services;

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  referral connection to other emergency services.

It was evaluated by BRC Marketing and Social Research, with Te Pumanawa Hauora from Massey University.

From May 2000 to the end of April 2002 Healthline received 79,254 calls, lasting ten minutes on average. Nearly all callers surveyed (97 percent) said they were very satisfied or satisfied with their call to Healthline and 98 per cent reported they would use the service again. Two percent of callers said they were dissatisfied and one percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.

Most callers were women, or adults calling on behalf of their children. The majority of calls (78 percent) were from people who relayed symptoms. Other calls were from people who wanted general information. Most of the calls (69 percent) were made out of normal business hours (8am-5.30pm Monday to Friday). Most callers (69 percent) did what they were advised by Healthline staff. When callers did not follow advice it was found to be because the symptoms in question had abated.

The evaluation also found that most callers (71 percent) were advised by Healthline to take an alternative course of action from their pre-call intent. For example 10 percent of callers were planning to go to an Emergency Department before calling, but of these only 28 percent were advised to do so. Most were advised to see a GP immediately (34 percent) or how to care for themselves (43 percent).

The evaluation showed health providers in the regions where Healthline was piloted were largely supportive of the telephone service. The majority of providers said the referrals they have received from the service were appropriate and they consider Healthline to be complementary to their service.

The Healthline service was audited for clinical safety by the Department of General Practice, Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the School of Health Sciences, Massey University. The School of Health Sciences concluded that the service is a safe and effective clinical advisory service that operates in a manner consistent with New Zealand Nursing Council Guidelines. Both audit teams found the Healthline service has operated at least as safely to date as similar overseas telephone services. They also found the Healthline service has the potential to provide a valuable and safe service and made a number of recommendations, including:

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  Healthline staff be alert to inconsistencies in caller histories.

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  Healthline staff address the issue that there are different risk factors for different ethnic groups particularly Maori, and show how the Healthline system has responded to the needs of Maori..

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  Healthline staff be encouraged to use critical, reflective and clinical analysis to amend decisions where necessary.

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  Healthline establish procedures to enable staff to deal with medication-related enquiries.

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  Healthline staff be selected with particular regard to prior clinical experience in a primary care setting.

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  Ensuring Healthline staff accurately record clinical information.

The Ministry of Health and Healthline are working together to implement those recommendations.

Healthline will continue in the pilot areas for a further year, during which time recommendations will be made to the Minister of Health on whether the service continues, and whether it is expanded to other regions.

The report can be viewed online at: www.moh.govt.nz/whatsnew.html