Dear Sir,
The COVID-19 pandemic and similar future challenges prompt measures for sustainable private psychiatric practice. Australian private psychiatrists have provided increased levels of outpatient, and sustained inpatient care, during the first two years of the pandemic.1 This has been achieved through innovative adoption of telehealth, facilitating continuity of consultations during pandemic lockdowns.1 Telehealth for psychiatrists to provide care to hospital inpatients will further enhance the resilience of the private mental health system.2
We provide advice on maintaining the business operation of private practice during pandemics, including:
Adapting practice management to allow for flexible work arrangements that include working from home, such as practice management software/services that allow for remote referrals, booking, billing (EFTPOS or similar), correspondence transcription, handwritten-note conversion-to-text, and records management.
Adopting a purpose-designed telehealth web platform, compliant with Australian cybersecurity recommendations.3 Preferably, platforms will be interoperable with practice management software/services, and service providers fully compliant with Australian health and privacy legislation. Cybersecurity is essential as there has been increased cybercrime during the pandemic.4
Implementing protocols for patient and practitioner attendance at the practice in accordance with public health measures, especially lockdowns, as well as assessing the suitability of telehealth for individual patients.5 These protocols should also include when to resume face-to-face consultations.
Ensuring availability of and adherence to pandemic public health protective measures such as masks and PPE, handwashing, distancing and contact-tracing check-in within the practice.
Contingency-planning for virus exposure predicated on (1-4) above, for example, a psychiatrist or staff-member who has unknowingly attended an identified exposure site may trigger the quarantine of staff, necessitating remote working from home.
When working from home, ensuring privacy and confidentiality for workflow and patient consultations, as well as compliance with work health and safety requirements. This includes ergonomics, provision of specific equipment and software (antivirus-security, practice management, telehealth platform), furniture and so on.
Maintaining regular communication amongst practitioners and staff, coordinated through the practice manager and/or practice principal via secure electronic messaging.
Through temporary adoption, low activity period stress-testing of these operational methods.
We have outlined some of the measures we have found useful to enhance sustainability during the pandemic, and encourage colleagues to share further advice through the journal and the RANZCP.
Footnotes
Disclosure: The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Contributor Information
Jeffrey C.L. Looi, Canberra, ACT
Michelle Atchison, Melbourne, VIC.
May Matias, Canberra, ACT.
Pauli Viljakainen, Canberra, ACT.
ORCID iD
Jeffrey C.L. Looi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3351-6911
References
- 1.Looi JCL, Bastiampillai T, Kisely SR, et al. How has private psychiatry in Australia responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2021. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.RANZCP. Lockdowns causing severe impact on psychiatry services. https://www.ranzcp.org/news-policy/news/lockdowns-causing-severe-impact-on-psychiatry-serv (2021, accessed 8 September 2021).
- 3.Australian_Cybersecurity_Centre. Web Conferencing Security. https://www.cyber.gov.au/publications/web-conferencing-security (2020, accessed 20 April 2020).
- 4.Australian_Cybersecurity_Centre. COVID-19: protecting your small business. https://www.cyber.gov.au/advice/covid-19-protecting-your-small-business (2020, accessed 20 April 2020).
- 5.Looi JC, Pring W. Private metropolitan telepsychiatry in Australia during Covid-19: current practice and future developments. Australas Psychiatry 2020; 28: 508–510. DOI: 10.1177/1039856220930675 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]