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Short Report
Telemedicine implementation on a bariatric outpatient clinic during COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: an unexpected hill-start.
Matteo Runfola M.D. F.A.C.S.
Department of Surgery, Obesity Surgery Unit, A.O. Brotzu, Cagliari, Italy
Corresponding Author
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This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Background
SARS-CoV2 outbreak has challenged NHS of many countries. Generalized restriction of movement, together with the unprecedented pressure on the Health System, disrupted routine care for non-COVID-19 patients. Telemedicine has been promoted to reduce the risk of infections and to offer medical assistance to the restricted population. This paper is aimed to evaluate the impact of tele-consulting technology in a single bariatric surgical center.
Study Design
Our outpatient clinic reorganized the service from on-site to long-distance video-consultations. All patients received a multiple-choice satisfaction questionnaire. The main goals were to evaluate patient compliance to the video consultations and to assess patient satisfaction.
Results
The preliminary results show a drop-out rate of 42.4%. No significant differences were found between participants and non-participants in terms of age and gender ratio. Urban area residents were 57.9% in Participants group versus 42.8% in Non-participants group. Slightly more than half of participants (52.6%) completed the survey reporting levels of satisfaction between high and very high.
Conclusion
Telemedicine has been advocated as a useful tool to relieve pressure on the overwhelmed Health Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, e-health technologies are not yet widely adopted. Our initial experience, also compared with national data relating to the digital divide, suggests that the absence of basic computer skills and the lack of confidence with video-call systems may be patient-specific barriers for the implementation of telemedicine. In this context, telemedicine implementation can run up against various patient-related barriers and several challenges remain for e-health to be integrated into outpatient practice
Keywords
Telemedicine, COVID-19, bariatric surgery, outpatient, digital divide
Figure 1
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This is a preprint. It has not completed peer review.
Short Report
Telemedicine implementation on a bariatric outpatient clinic during COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: an unexpected hill-start.
Matteo Runfola M.D. F.A.C.S.
Department of Surgery, Obesity Surgery Unit, A.O. Brotzu, Cagliari, Italy
Corresponding Author
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 29 May, 2020
No community comments so far
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Background
SARS-CoV2 outbreak has challenged NHS of many countries. Generalized restriction of movement, together with the unprecedented pressure on the Health System, disrupted routine care for non-COVID-19 patients. Telemedicine has been promoted to reduce the risk of infections and to offer medical assistance to the restricted population. This paper is aimed to evaluate the impact of tele-consulting technology in a single bariatric surgical center.
Study Design
Our outpatient clinic reorganized the service from on-site to long-distance video-consultations. All patients received a multiple-choice satisfaction questionnaire. The main goals were to evaluate patient compliance to the video consultations and to assess patient satisfaction.
Results
The preliminary results show a drop-out rate of 42.4%. No significant differences were found between participants and non-participants in terms of age and gender ratio. Urban area residents were 57.9% in Participants group versus 42.8% in Non-participants group. Slightly more than half of participants (52.6%) completed the survey reporting levels of satisfaction between high and very high.
Conclusion
Telemedicine has been advocated as a useful tool to relieve pressure on the overwhelmed Health Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, e-health technologies are not yet widely adopted. Our initial experience, also compared with national data relating to the digital divide, suggests that the absence of basic computer skills and the lack of confidence with video-call systems may be patient-specific barriers for the implementation of telemedicine. In this context, telemedicine implementation can run up against various patient-related barriers and several challenges remain for e-health to be integrated into outpatient practice
Figure 1