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Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary
BACKGROUND: Digital health has expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the exclusion of vulnerable populations with limited access to these technologies widens the gap to receive proper care. There is very little data available on the feasibility of telemedicine solutions regarding the chronic...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9758475/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36528777 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01803-4 |
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author | Békási, Sándor Girasek, Edmond Győrffy, Zsuzsa |
author_facet | Békási, Sándor Girasek, Edmond Győrffy, Zsuzsa |
author_sort | Békási, Sándor |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Digital health has expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the exclusion of vulnerable populations with limited access to these technologies widens the gap to receive proper care. There is very little data available on the feasibility of telemedicine solutions regarding the chronic care of homeless persons. METHODS: In our study, 75 participants experiencing homelessness were recruited from four social institutions in Budapest, Hungary. The telecare pilot service consisted of six online consultations with a physician and was available in shelters biweekly. Self-developed questionnaires were used after every online session on the originating and remote sites as well, while a follow-up study was also completed among patients after four to six months of pilot closure. Parameters as frequencies, averages, and percentage distributions were analyzed and two linear regression models were built on explaining the doctors’ and patients’ overall rating of visits. RESULTS: During the pilot, 92.2% (n = 415) of originally planned visits were delivered and 55 clients (73.3%) attended the full program. Both the patients’ and physicians’ overall satisfaction was very high (4.52 and 4.79, respectively, on a 5-point Likert scale) and the patients’ overall rating remained similarly high during the follow-up. Comparing the first and sixth visits, physicians reported significant improvements in almost all aspects. The linear regression models proved that confidence in the patients’ assessment and diagnosis had the most prominent effect on the physicians’ overall rating, while ease of use and lack of communication gaps influenced positively the patients’ rating. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that telehealth services represent a promising tool to ensure better care continuity while using shelter infrastructure and on-site assistance might reduce the digital exclusion of people experiencing homelessness. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-022-01803-4. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9758475 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97584752022-12-18 Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary Békási, Sándor Girasek, Edmond Győrffy, Zsuzsa Int J Equity Health Research BACKGROUND: Digital health has expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the exclusion of vulnerable populations with limited access to these technologies widens the gap to receive proper care. There is very little data available on the feasibility of telemedicine solutions regarding the chronic care of homeless persons. METHODS: In our study, 75 participants experiencing homelessness were recruited from four social institutions in Budapest, Hungary. The telecare pilot service consisted of six online consultations with a physician and was available in shelters biweekly. Self-developed questionnaires were used after every online session on the originating and remote sites as well, while a follow-up study was also completed among patients after four to six months of pilot closure. Parameters as frequencies, averages, and percentage distributions were analyzed and two linear regression models were built on explaining the doctors’ and patients’ overall rating of visits. RESULTS: During the pilot, 92.2% (n = 415) of originally planned visits were delivered and 55 clients (73.3%) attended the full program. Both the patients’ and physicians’ overall satisfaction was very high (4.52 and 4.79, respectively, on a 5-point Likert scale) and the patients’ overall rating remained similarly high during the follow-up. Comparing the first and sixth visits, physicians reported significant improvements in almost all aspects. The linear regression models proved that confidence in the patients’ assessment and diagnosis had the most prominent effect on the physicians’ overall rating, while ease of use and lack of communication gaps influenced positively the patients’ rating. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that telehealth services represent a promising tool to ensure better care continuity while using shelter infrastructure and on-site assistance might reduce the digital exclusion of people experiencing homelessness. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-022-01803-4. BioMed Central 2022-12-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9758475/ /pubmed/36528777 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01803-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Békási, Sándor Girasek, Edmond Győrffy, Zsuzsa Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary |
title | Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary |
title_full | Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary |
title_fullStr | Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary |
title_full_unstemmed | Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary |
title_short | Telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in Hungary |
title_sort | telemedicine in community shelters: possibilities to improve chronic care among people experiencing homelessness in hungary |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9758475/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36528777 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01803-4 |
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