1. Tele-medicine versus face-to-face consultation in Endocrine Outpatients Clinic during COVID-19 outbreak: a single-center experience during the lockdown period.
- Author
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Ceccato F, Voltan G, Sabbadin C, Camozzi V, Merante Boschin I, Mian C, Zanotto V, Donato D, Bordignon G, Capizzi A, Carretta G, and Scaroni C
- Subjects
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ambulatory Care Facilities organization & administration, Ambulatory Care Facilities statistics & numerical data, COVID-19 epidemiology, COVID-19 transmission, Cross-Sectional Studies, Disease Outbreaks, Female, Humans, Italy epidemiology, Male, Middle Aged, Outpatients statistics & numerical data, Pandemics, Quarantine methods, Quarantine organization & administration, Quarantine statistics & numerical data, SARS-CoV-2 physiology, Triage methods, Triage organization & administration, Triage statistics & numerical data, COVID-19 prevention & control, Communicable Disease Control methods, Communicable Disease Control organization & administration, Endocrinology methods, Endocrinology organization & administration, Endocrinology statistics & numerical data, Referral and Consultation organization & administration, Referral and Consultation statistics & numerical data, Telemedicine methods, Telemedicine organization & administration, Telemedicine statistics & numerical data
- 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 Outcome Measure: 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., (© 2020. The Author(s).)
- Published
- 2021
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