Implementation of teleconsultation in hospitals in the city of Córdoba since the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Abstract

Teleconsultation is one of the benefits of telemedicine, in which the medical consultation takes place virtually. There are no published data on the frequency and modality of the application of teleconsultation in public and private hospitals in the city of Córdoba. The objective of this work is to estimate the frequency and modality of teleconsultation in hospitals in the city of Córdoba from 2020 to 2022 in order to have local data.

A descriptive, observational and prospective study was carried out with an online survey (Google Forms) to representatives of 30 hospitals in the city of Córdoba. It was approved by the Ethics Committee HNC and SeCyT.

It was possible to interview 17 representatives of private hospitals and 13 public ones. 82% (n=14) of the private institutions offered teleconsultation versus 77% (n=10) of the public hospitals. 91.66% (n=22) implemented it due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the other 8.3% (n=2) offered it previously. Internal Medicine (n=15), Infectology (n=11) and Cardiology (n=9) services were the ones that most frequently offered teleconsultations. To keep track of each service, 58.33% (n=14) of the hospitals carried out statistical controls. Despite the accessibility to virtual platforms, the telephone call (n=17; 41.5%) was the most used tool. 75% (n=18) were satisfied because the number of patients increased after the implementation of teleconsultations. 25% (n=6) were satisfied due to the number of people with disabilities, economic limitations, etc. that due to offering teleconsultations had access to specialized care. Among the hospitals that did not offer teleconsultation, 66.67% (n=4) do not plan to implement it in the future, and the rest were taking steps to do it in the next year (n=2).

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic catalyzed the implementation of teleconsultations in most of the hospitals surveyed. The most demanded services were Internal Medicine and Infectology. Despite increasing accessibility to this type of consultation, there are various reasons as to why certain hospitals still do not plan to incorporate this tool. Having these data can constitute a basis for improving future health care strategies in the city of Córdoba.