1. Descriptive Analysis of a Telephone Based Community Monitoring Service for COVID-19.
- Author
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Clarke, A. C., Hull, S., Semciw, A. I., Jessup, R. L., Campbell, D., Fabri, A. M., Tully, N., Bramston, C., and Hayes, J.
- Subjects
RESPIRATORY diseases ,COVID-19 ,AFFECT (Psychology) ,RESEARCH methodology ,LUNG diseases ,AGE distribution ,COMMUNITY health services ,PUBLIC health ,RETROSPECTIVE studies ,CARDIOVASCULAR diseases ,MENTAL health ,PATIENT monitoring ,FATIGUE (Physiology) ,TELEMEDICINE - Abstract
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has required health services to rapidly respond to the needs of people diagnosed with the virus. Over 80% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 experience a mild illness and there is a need for community management to support these people in their home. In this paper we present, a telephone based COVID-19 community monitoring service developed in an Australian public health network, and we describe the rapid implementation of the service and the demographic and clinical characteristics of those enrolled. A retrospective mixed methods evaluation of the COVID-19 community monitoring service using the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework. Eight hundred and fifty COVID-19 positive patients were enrolled, 54% female, 45% male, mean age 34 years SD 17. Four hundred and nine (48%) patients were born outside Australia. Among the 850 patients, 305 (36%) were classified as having a high risk of serious illness from COVID-19. The most prevalent risk factors were cardiovascular disease (37%), lung disease (30%) and age over 60 years (26%). The most common reported ongoing symptoms were fatigue (55%), breathing issues (26%) and mental health issues such as low mood (19%). There were no deaths in patients that participated in the service. The process of risk stratification undertaken with telephone triage was effective in determining risk of prolonged illness from COVID-19. Telephone monitoring by trained health professionals has a strong potential in the effective management of patients with a mild COVID-19 illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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