Development of the electronic consultation long-term care utilization and savings estimator tool to model the potential impact of electronic consultation for residents living in long-term care

Abstract

Ageing populations have resulted in more patients living in long-term care or nursing homes, where they face challenges to accessing prompt specialist care exacerbated in many cases by physical or cognitive decline. Electronic consultation has demonstrated an ability to improve access to specialist care for vulnerable groups and offers a potential solution to this gap in care. To support electronic consultation's uptake among long-term care homes, we created the electronic consultation long-term care utilization and savings estimator, an Excel-based tool that estimates the number of off-site appointments that patients in a long-term care home could avoid through electronic consultation, along with the consequent time and cost savings. In this brief report, we discuss the electronic consultation long-term care utilization and savings estimator's creation and function, and provide a case study using long-term care data to demonstrate its potential impact. We anticipate the electronic consultation long-term care utilization and savings estimator will be a highly impactful tool and intend to test it in real-world conditions following the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions.