ABSTRACT
Internet-based practice of stomatology hospitals plays an important role in promoting hierarchical medical system and overcoming the social problems of " high costs and difficulties of medical services" . The authors introduced the practice of free online consultations at a tertiary stomatology hospital during this period. They also analyzed such characteristics of the practice as the doctors′ response rate, doctors′ response timeliness, as well as the specialties and timeframe distribution of patient consultations. The hospital provides online consultations on Guangdong cloud-based hospital platform in two modes. For example, the normal consultation mode operates in a many-many manner, with services provided by attendings and associate chief physicians appointed less than three years. In off hours, patients can also raise questions online. The expert consultation mode offers consultations during business hours in a one-to-one manner, with services provided by associate chief physicians appointed over three years and chief physicians. From February 10 to March 22 2020, 2 156 persons/times of consultations were served in the normal mode, and 1 043 persons/times received in the expert mode. The response timelines of the latter (16.19 min) was much better than the former (27.10 min). In terms of consultation workload of sub-specialties, oral medicine ranked the top (69.30%), while the consultations of the normal mode in work hours accounted for only 73.47% of total consultation workload. It is recommended to optimize resources deployment, introduce artificial intelligent inquiry service, explore an online-offline combined stomatological service, and improve performance management. These measures, when in place, can promote sustainable development of Internet-based stomatology hospitals.