TY  - JOUR
AU  - Thomas, Donna Claire
AU  - Litherland, Eva Frances
AU  - Masso, Sarah
AU  - Raymundo, Gianina
AU  - Keep, Melanie
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/6/7
TI  - Clinicians’ Decision-Making Regarding Telehealth Services: Focus Group Study in Pediatric Allied Health
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e46300
VL  - 8
KW  - telehealth
KW  - pediatric
KW  - allied health
KW  - focus group
KW  - decision-making
KW  - community-based
KW  - counseling
KW  - speech pathology
KW  - occupational therapy
KW  - clinical services
AB  - 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 versus in person. Objective: The aim of this study is to explore clinicians’ decision-making when contemplating telehealth for their clients, including the factors they consider and how they weigh up these different factors, and the clinicians’ perceptions of telehealth utility beyond COVID-19 lockdowns. Methods: We used reflexive thematic analysis with data collected from focus groups with 16 pediatric community–based allied health clinicians from the disciplines of speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, social work, psychology, and counseling. Results: The findings indicated that decision-making was complex with interactions across 4 broad categories: technology, clients and families, clinical services, and clinicians. Three themes described their perceptions of telehealth use beyond COVID-19 lockdowns: “flexible telehealth use,” “telehealth can be superior to in-person therapy,” and “fear that in-person services may be replaced.” 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. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2024/1/e46300
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/46300
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38848121
DO  - 10.2196/46300
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/46300
ER  -