Tele-medicine versus face-to-face consultation in Endocrine Outpatients Clinic during COVID-19 outbreak: a single-center experience during the lockdown period.
J Endocrinol Invest
; 44(8): 1689-1698, 2021 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33355915
ABSTRACT
CONTEXT The COVID-19 outbreak in Italy is the major concern of Public Health in 2020 measures of containment were progressively expanded, limiting Outpatients' visit. OBJECTIVE:
We have developed and applied an emergency plan, tailored for Outpatients with endocrine diseases.DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study from March to May 2020.SETTING:
Referral University-Hospital center. PATIENTS 1262 patients in 8 weeks.INTERVENTIONS:
The emergency plan is based upon the endocrine triage, the stay-safe procedures and the tele-Endo. During endocrine triage every patient was contacted by phone to assess health status and define if the visit will be performed face-to-face (F2F) or by tele-Medicine (tele-Endo). In case of F2F, targeted stay-safe procedures have been adopted. Tele-Endo, performed by phone and email, is dedicated to COVID-19-infected patients, to elderly or frail people, or to those with a stable disease. MAIN OUTCOMEMEASURE:
To assess efficacy of the emergency plan to continue the follow-up of Outpatients.RESULTS:
The number of visits cancelled after endocrine triage (9%) is lower than that cancelled independently by the patients (37%, p < 0.001); the latter reduced from 47 to 19% during the weeks of lockdown (p = 0.032). 86% of patients contacted by endocrine-triage received a clinical response (F2F and tele-Endo visits). F2F visit was offered especially to young patients; tele-Endo was applied to 63% of geriatric patients (p < 0.001), visits' outcome was similar between young and aged patients.CONCLUSIONS:
The emergency plan respects the WHO recommendations to limit viral spread and is useful to continue follow-up for outpatients with endocrine diseases.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Encaminhamento e Consulta
/
Controle de Doenças Transmissíveis
/
Telemedicina
/
Endocrinologia
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudo:
Guideline
/
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Aged80
País como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article