Does telehealth influence the decision to transfer residents of residential aged care facilities to emergency departments? A scoping review.

The review is a scoping map, not a test of whether telehealth works. Many included studies were descriptive, small, or conducted in one facility, so their results may not generalise. Residents with dementia were often excluded or unable to consent, so the review may overstate what residents themselves experienced. Telehealth was not suitable for all physical examinations or hands-on procedures, and staff turnover, workload, late calls, and poor GP engagement limited uptake. Some studies evaluated telehealth as part of broader outreach or multidisciplinary services, so the effect of telehealth alone cannot be isolated. No a-priori protocol was registered, and some studies had incomplete data or unclear outcome definitions.

Funded by the Translational Research Grant Scheme with the Ministry of Health, New South Wales, Australia. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Do not conclude that telehealth reliably reduces emergency department transfers. The review included mostly descriptive and small studies, and the two most robust trials reported conflicting results.