The impact of extensive loss of telecommunications on general practice: a case study in rural Victoria

OBJECTIVE: To describe the impact of major loss of telecommunications on general practice in a rural region of Australia. DESIGN: A multi-stage qualitative study. Purposively selected participants were invited to contribute to initial data collection using an online survey, followed by interviews with selected participants. Thematic analysis of the data was performed by both research team members. SETTING: South-western Victoria, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals from organisations involved in Telstra recovery efforts, disaster management, health care and general practice staff. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The survey collected freeform responses from participants. Semi-structured interviews further explored a variety of experiences from purposively selected participants. RESULTS: Organisations and practices in the region were prepared for major disasters, but not for the unusual and 'limited' disaster of losing telecommunications, including lack of Internet access and loss of telephone services. Although alternative measures were found for telecommunications, there was still a significant impact on many health-care-related activities and general practice functionality during the outage period. In particular, there was an increase in duties for administrative staff to compensate for loss of telecommunications. Patient traffic for many services decreased due to uncertainty about availability and continuation of business. CONCLUSIONS: The Warrnambool outage could be used as a case study illustrating the dramatic impact of communication loss. Major impacts include changes in patient traffic, increased administrative duties and slowing of patient care. When developing or assessing disaster management plans, general practices should consider the impact of telecommunication loss on functionality and prepare appropriate alternative, accessible and reliable measures.