TeleHealth on HA Go provides virtual consultation services

HA GO by the Hospital Authority (HA) launched the all-in-one virtual consultation service “TeleHealth” , for public hospitals in Hong Kong, and has been frequently and broadly used by patients seeking consultations without visiting high risk areas such as hospitals during COVID-19 period. This new feature has been piloted at 15 hospitals covering 13 specialties including diabetes and COVID-19. The function has helped patients save time commuting for follow-up consultations, and at the same time reduce the risk of getting infected from COVID-19 during the latest wave of the pandemic. Patients with mobility concerns have also benefited from the new technology. It has served 4,200 patients including 3,000 COVID-19 patients since the feature launched in around 6 months.

TeleHealth is built based on user-centric UX, with warm reminders to guide the patient through the virtual process, including registration and payment, identity verification, points to note and hints for patients. During the waiting time, the patients will be waiting in a virtual waiting room, where nurses will do the preliminary check with the patient, just like their usual practice physically. Then the doctor will enter the virtual room to conduct the medical consultation, and the consultation process will be identical to a physical consultation. Nurses will then follow up with patients in the virtual room with further arrangements including medication or booking the next medical appointment, if needed.

Features:

• Remote booking and registration
• Virtual medical consultation
• Online payment through app
• Remote ID verification
• Virtual waiting room
• Virtual preliminary check