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Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19
The COVID-19 global pandemic dictated rapid change to outpatient services within our London-based maternity hospital. Coupled with long waiting times in the Consultant-led Antenatal clinic, we aimed to reduce hospital footfall and unnecessary contact with a clinically vulnerable patient population b...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8761597/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35027342 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001622 |
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author | Tavener, Christina Rose Kyriacou, Christopher Elmascri, Imene Cruickshank, Amy Das, Sabrina |
author_facet | Tavener, Christina Rose Kyriacou, Christopher Elmascri, Imene Cruickshank, Amy Das, Sabrina |
author_sort | Tavener, Christina Rose |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 global pandemic dictated rapid change to outpatient services within our London-based maternity hospital. Coupled with long waiting times in the Consultant-led Antenatal clinic, we aimed to reduce hospital footfall and unnecessary contact with a clinically vulnerable patient population by reducing face-to-face consultations. Numerous specialties have already successfully implemented safe and effective teleconferencing, allowing remote review while reducing the risks posed by face-to-face contact. A target to see at least 15% of women remotely was set to reduce footfall in the Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic. We aimed to reduce face-to-face waiting times to a mean of 30 min. In March 2020, clinics were prevetted by the clinic consultant to carefully select appropriate women suitable for video or telephone consultations. Clinic templates were changed, increasing appointment times by 5–25 min each. ‘AccuRx’ software was tested and used to communicate appointment details and conduct the consultation. In-person waiting times in the clinic and number of virtual consultations over a 3-month period was recorded, along with qualitative feedback from service users and staff through surveys and departmental meetings. Mean waiting times were reduced by 33% from 45–30 min and multiple service-user benefits were noted, including partner involvement, convenience of waiting for appointments at home and removing requirement for childcare. However, limitations of internet connectivity, need for time to prevet clinics and lack of a robust administration system to inform women of their appointment type were highlighted. Further work is required in these areas to ensure sustainability and improvement of this process for the future. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8761597 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87615972022-01-18 Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 Tavener, Christina Rose Kyriacou, Christopher Elmascri, Imene Cruickshank, Amy Das, Sabrina BMJ Open Qual Quality Improvement Report The COVID-19 global pandemic dictated rapid change to outpatient services within our London-based maternity hospital. Coupled with long waiting times in the Consultant-led Antenatal clinic, we aimed to reduce hospital footfall and unnecessary contact with a clinically vulnerable patient population by reducing face-to-face consultations. Numerous specialties have already successfully implemented safe and effective teleconferencing, allowing remote review while reducing the risks posed by face-to-face contact. A target to see at least 15% of women remotely was set to reduce footfall in the Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic. We aimed to reduce face-to-face waiting times to a mean of 30 min. In March 2020, clinics were prevetted by the clinic consultant to carefully select appropriate women suitable for video or telephone consultations. Clinic templates were changed, increasing appointment times by 5–25 min each. ‘AccuRx’ software was tested and used to communicate appointment details and conduct the consultation. In-person waiting times in the clinic and number of virtual consultations over a 3-month period was recorded, along with qualitative feedback from service users and staff through surveys and departmental meetings. Mean waiting times were reduced by 33% from 45–30 min and multiple service-user benefits were noted, including partner involvement, convenience of waiting for appointments at home and removing requirement for childcare. However, limitations of internet connectivity, need for time to prevet clinics and lack of a robust administration system to inform women of their appointment type were highlighted. Further work is required in these areas to ensure sustainability and improvement of this process for the future. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8761597/ /pubmed/35027342 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001622 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Quality Improvement Report Tavener, Christina Rose Kyriacou, Christopher Elmascri, Imene Cruickshank, Amy Das, Sabrina Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 |
title | Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 |
title_full | Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 |
title_fullStr | Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 |
title_full_unstemmed | Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 |
title_short | Rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based Consultant-led Antenatal Clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to COVID-19 |
title_sort | rapid introduction of virtual consultation in a hospital-based consultant-led antenatal clinic to minimise exposure of pregnant women to covid-19 |
topic | Quality Improvement Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8761597/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35027342 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001622 |
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