Virtual care adoption soars yet majority of Aussies still prefer in-person healthcare - PwC report on the future of hybrid healthcare in Australia

• 36% of Australians used online search to learn more about a specific health condition during the past 12 months
• 44% of Australians are very open to using virtual care channels including email, SMS and video consultations
• One in three respondents (32%) would be open to having a consultation with their clinician online
• Almost one in three Australians have scheduled an appointment online over the past 12 months

As Australia moves towards 2022, where the majority of the eligible population is vaccinated and learns to live with COVID-19, there has been a significant shift in how people accessed and delivered healthcare during the pandemic. This rapid adoption was largely driven out of necessity rather than by choice, with more consumers using virtual care than ever before. Overwhelmingly, most consumers were still inclined towards receiving care in-person with 80% of Australians preferring to see a clinician in-person, particularly those aged 65+.

The past 12 months saw an upturn in consumers’ willingness to engage proactively with clinicians in a virtual setting. Australians have interacted in more transactional ways such as booking appointments as opposed to relational interactions such as remote patient monitoring with their clinician. The survey showed 32% had scheduled a medical appointment online during the past 12 months and 26% had spoken to a medical provider over the phone, while only 16% had received blood tests, medical imaging or other medical test results online.

PwC Australia conducted its inaugural Australian Virtual Health Consumer Survey of over 1,000 Australians to understand their preferences and desires on how they want to access healthcare. The report, The rise of virtual health: The future of hybrid healthcare in Australia, explored the nation’s appetite for virtual healthcare. It identified three ideas to support health providers and services to build consumer trust and confidence to access care differently which includes building hybrid models of care, segmenting consumers to understand their different needs, and measuring, monitoring and continuously improving the consumer experience of virtual care.

Nathan Schlesinger, National Health Consulting Lead at PwC Australia, said, “Experience has shown the importance of truly understanding consumer needs and desires when designing new ways of delivering healthcare. The majority of virtual health research to date has been retrospective, focusing on people’s uptake and experiences of virtual care. With the lack of publicly available evidence to understand consumer needs around virtual care, our survey fills the gap in determining how health services can best harness the changes and consumer behaviour shifts seen during the pandemic to sustain virtual care.”

Many Australians are familiar with using online resources for medical information, with more than one-third (36%) of survey participants saying they had searched the internet to learn about specific health conditions. The potential for positive outcomes in the virtual health environment is far broader than just personal research, and a large proportion of survey respondents are willing to engage more with it. More than 70% of respondents said they are open to receiving a reminder about upcoming health appointments through SMS or via email and 56% of respondents are open to making an appointment with a medical provider online.

People with dependents and digital natives are the most likely groups of Australians classified as innovators and early adopters of virtual care. Yet, there still remained a preference, when Australia was focused on a ‘COVID zero’ strategy versus ‘COVID suppressed’ strategy, for some consumers to access their care in an in-person setting. In fact, most consumers (80%) were still inclined towards receiving care in-person.

Findings from the survey also indicated that consumers with dependents and younger consumers have a greater preference towards accessing their care virtually. Over 47% of respondents who are married or de facto with dependents said they strongly prefer to have a consultation with their doctor through telephone or video and over 52% of respondents’ preference is to communicate with their health care provider via SMS or email. Millennials (currently aged 25-34 years) had an even stronger preference towards accessing care virtually with more than 57% preferring to use remote monitoring to report and monitor vital statistics and over 58% preferring to communicate with their health provider via SMS or email.

Furthermore, consumers do believe there are benefits in accessing their care virtually. When asked to rank the benefits of accessing care virtually, it will save time was ranked the highest at 38%, followed by convenience of accessing care from home (32%), timeliness access to care (29%), and it will save money (25%) rounding out the top four. Interestingly, over a third of respondents (32%) did not perceive any benefits to virtual care.

India Hardy, Virtual Health Leader at PwC Australia, said, “The pandemic response required models of care to be rapidly evolved to meet the needs of Australians. In some instances, this acceleration may have prioritised functionality ahead of consumer experience, in turn impacting on confidence and trust to access care virtually.

“Married and de facto couples with children are usually time poor, often trying to manage multiple competing work and care priorities. The time, money and opportunity cost of having to take time out to physically attend appointments is high. For Millennials, their comfort with technology and consumer need for convenience is reflected in their virtual care preferences. In contrast, a lack of awareness or maturity, limited understanding or a poor past experience may be reasons for those who don’t see the benefits of virtual care services.”

Australian health services are now faced with the question of whether pandemic driven behaviour will remain or if this newfound affinity for virtual care will fade post-pandemic. In order to sustain these changes, the results of the survey have highlighted the need to bring more Australians on the journey of accessing care through a hybrid of modalities - both virtually and in-person.

Schlesinger said that virtual care is here to stay, however while more hybrid models of care are implemented over the coming months that not all consumers will prefer to receive care virtually.

“It will be imperative that health providers take the time to understand their consumers. A thoughtful approach to change management will be paramount. Health services need to be transparent with consumers around how decisions are made on whether care is provided in-person or virtually. Australians are open, curious and have a willingness to explore virtual care and a legacy of this era is that for a segment of Australians, there is an expectation that they will be able to continue to access care virtually. But there will be some people who will need or want care in-person - and this preference must be respected and met.

“Like any good policy or strategy in healthcare, it is important to start with the patient. For health services, the time is ripe to consider and explore new and innovative forms of virtual care,” concluded Schlesinger.