Telephone‐delivered weight management services in the hospital outpatient setting: Decision‐makers’ perceptions of their use in routine practice

Megan E. Whelan, Ana D. Goode, Ingrid J. Hickman, Elizabeth G. Eakin, Marina M. Reeves

Providing effective weight management services to the growing number of overweight or obese hospital patients necessitates long-term service provision; however, it is arguably not within the acute-care hospital remit to provide such extended services. Referral to community-based programs is required to provide continuing weight management services. The Get Healthy Service is a free six-month, telephone-delivered lifestyle program, now offered in several states of Australia with potential for wide population reach. However, health practitioner referral into the service has been low. The study aimed to examine awareness and suitability of the Get Healthy Service for referral of hospital outpatients for weight management, among key health-care decision-makers. Nine key decision-makers from metropolitan and rural Queensland Health hospitals took part in semi-structured telephone interviews that were audio-recorded (January-July 2014), transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Interviews revealed that most decision-makers had limited awareness of the Get Healthy Service but perceived the telephone service to be suitable for patient referrals. Incorporating Get Healthy Service referrals into patient care was seen to be potentially valuable and relatively easy to implement, with most interviewees suggesting that they would provide a Get Healthy Service brochure to patients who could then self-refer into the service. The Get Healthy Service provides a referral model for weight management service provision that appears feasible for use in Queensland hospital settings. Increased awareness and a more integrated approach to referrals would likely result in improved enrolment to the service, with future research needed to demonstrate this.