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Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System

Objective The need for clinicians to access Infectious Diseases (ID) consultants for clinical decision-making support increased during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Traditional ID consultations with face-to-face (FTF) patient assessments are not always possible or practical durin...

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Autores principales: Yagnik, Kruti J, Saad, Hala A, King, Helen L, Bedimo, Roger J, Lehmann, Christoph U, Medford, Richard J
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8642131/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34877196
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.19203
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author Yagnik, Kruti J
Saad, Hala A
King, Helen L
Bedimo, Roger J
Lehmann, Christoph U
Medford, Richard J
author_facet Yagnik, Kruti J
Saad, Hala A
King, Helen L
Bedimo, Roger J
Lehmann, Christoph U
Medford, Richard J
author_sort Yagnik, Kruti J
collection PubMed
description Objective The need for clinicians to access Infectious Diseases (ID) consultants for clinical decision-making support increased during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Traditional ID consultations with face-to-face (FTF) patient assessments are not always possible or practical during a pandemic and involve added exposure risk and personal protective equipment (PPE) use. Electronic consultations (e-consults) may provide an alternative and improve access to ID specialists during the pandemic. Methods We implemented ID e-consult platforms designed to answer clinical questions related to COVID-19 at three academic clinical institutions in Dallas, Texas. We conducted a retrospective review of all COVID-19 ID e-consults between March 16, 2020 and May 15, 2020 evaluating characteristics and outcomes of e-consults among the clinical sites. Results We completed 198 COVID-19 ID e-consults at participating institutions. The most common e-consult indications were for 63 (32%) repeat testing, 61 (31%) initial testing, 65 (33%) treatment options, and 61 (31%) Infection Prevention (IP). Based on the e-consult recommendation, 53 (27%) of patients were initially tested for COVID-19, 45 (23%) were re-tested, 44 (22%) of patients had PPE precautions initiated, and 37 (19%) had PPE precautions removed. The median time to consult completion was four hours and 8 (4%) consults were converted to standard FTF consults. Conclusion E-consult services can provide safe and timely access to ID specialists during the COVID-19 pandemic, minimizing the risk of infection to the patient and health care workers, while preserving PPE and testing supplies.
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spelling pubmed-86421312021-12-06 Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System Yagnik, Kruti J Saad, Hala A King, Helen L Bedimo, Roger J Lehmann, Christoph U Medford, Richard J Cureus Infectious Disease Objective The need for clinicians to access Infectious Diseases (ID) consultants for clinical decision-making support increased during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Traditional ID consultations with face-to-face (FTF) patient assessments are not always possible or practical during a pandemic and involve added exposure risk and personal protective equipment (PPE) use. Electronic consultations (e-consults) may provide an alternative and improve access to ID specialists during the pandemic. Methods We implemented ID e-consult platforms designed to answer clinical questions related to COVID-19 at three academic clinical institutions in Dallas, Texas. We conducted a retrospective review of all COVID-19 ID e-consults between March 16, 2020 and May 15, 2020 evaluating characteristics and outcomes of e-consults among the clinical sites. Results We completed 198 COVID-19 ID e-consults at participating institutions. The most common e-consult indications were for 63 (32%) repeat testing, 61 (31%) initial testing, 65 (33%) treatment options, and 61 (31%) Infection Prevention (IP). Based on the e-consult recommendation, 53 (27%) of patients were initially tested for COVID-19, 45 (23%) were re-tested, 44 (22%) of patients had PPE precautions initiated, and 37 (19%) had PPE precautions removed. The median time to consult completion was four hours and 8 (4%) consults were converted to standard FTF consults. Conclusion E-consult services can provide safe and timely access to ID specialists during the COVID-19 pandemic, minimizing the risk of infection to the patient and health care workers, while preserving PPE and testing supplies. Cureus 2021-11-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8642131/ /pubmed/34877196 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.19203 Text en Copyright © 2021, Yagnik et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Infectious Disease
Yagnik, Kruti J
Saad, Hala A
King, Helen L
Bedimo, Roger J
Lehmann, Christoph U
Medford, Richard J
Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System
title Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System
title_full Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System
title_fullStr Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System
title_full_unstemmed Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System
title_short Characteristics and Outcomes of Infectious Diseases Electronic COVID-19 Consultations at a Multisite Academic Health System
title_sort characteristics and outcomes of infectious diseases electronic covid-19 consultations at a multisite academic health system
topic Infectious Disease
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8642131/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34877196
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.19203
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