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Article History

Received: 11 October 2024

Accepted: 17 December 2024

First Online: 1 March 2025

Competing interests

: Authors A.B., S.-E.S. and I.S. are employees of the funder, UnitingCare Queensland. A.B. and S.-E.S. had a direct role in the implementation of the virtual hospital. No financial or other benefit other than the authors’ usual salary was received from UnitingCare Queensland. All intellectual property relating to this research is owned by Wesley Research Institute. UnitingCare Queensland has no ownership of intellectual property and no access to data created during this study. The other authors have no competing interest to declare.

: The research team consisted of career researchers with relevant qualifications and experience who are employed by the research partner (O.J.F., K.M., C.G.), a Ph.D. qualified career researcher employed by the industry partner (IS), employees of the industry partner with a leadership role in design and implementation of the virtual hospital (A.B., S.-E.S.), and an independent medical practitioner who volunteered their time to provide relevant clinical input into the study design (S.K.). A.B. also had a leadership role at the research partner. O.J.F., K.M., C.G., A.B., S.K. and I.S. had no supervisory relationship with any participant. S.-E.S. works in a statewide leadership role and, therefore, has a leadership relationship with some participants. A.B., I.S., S.K. and S.-E.S. did not obtain participants’ consent to participate, conduct interviews or review unredacted data. At the time of the study O.J.F., C.G., A.B., S.K. and I.S. all worked in a major city. S.-E.S. worked in a regional city. K.M. worked in a small remote township. K.M., C.G. and O.J.F. conducted the majority of the analysis and interpretation of these data. O.J.F. is a Ph.D.-qualified implementation scientist and health services researcher. O.J.F. is a former occupational therapist and now has a full-time Senior Research Fellow role leading a programme of virtual healthcare research. O.J.F. has previously lived and worked as a clinician in both rural and remote and metropolitan Australia. O.J.F. had previously met some participants through their research role but had no supervisory relationship with any participant. O.J.F. has experience in qualitative research, including implementation science and thematic analysis methods. C.G. is a Ph.D.-qualified social worker with extensive experience in the care of older persons. C.G. is an aged care and health services Research Fellow with expertise in qualitative research and a background in social work. C.G. had no known prior relationships with any participants that C.G. interviewed. C.G. had met some participants that they did not interview prior to the study through their research role. C.G. has not lived or worked in rural and remote areas. At the time of the study, K.M. was employed by the research partner as a Research Assistant and rural and remote mental health Care Navigator (non-research role). K.M. has a background in biological sciences and health services research. K.M. lives in remote Queensland.

: This manuscript complies with the relevant EQUATOR reporting guideline: the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research.