Telemedicine Surge for Pediatric Patients in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City.
Telemed J E Health
; 27(10): 1105-1110, 2021 10.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1020221
ABSTRACT
Background:
Our objective is to describe our pediatric virtual urgent care (VUC) experience at a large urban academic medical center, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City (NYC). Materials andMethods:
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of our pediatric VUC program of patients less than age 18 years, from March 1 to May 31, 2020. We include data on expansion of staffing, patient demographics, virtual care, and outcomes.Results:
We rapidly onboarded, educated, and trained pediatric telemedicine providers. We evaluated 406 pediatric patients with median age 4.4 years and 53.9% male. Median call time was 512 pm, median time to provider was 5.7 min, and median duration of call was 11.1 min. The most common reasons for a visit were COVID-19-related symptoms (36%), dermatologic (15%), and trauma (10%). Virtual care for patients consisted of conservative management (72%), medication prescription (18%), and referral to an urgent care or pediatric emergency department (PED) (10%). Of 16 patients referred and presented to our emergency department, 2 required intensive care for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Oral antibiotics were prescribed for 7.1% of all patients. Only 0.005% of patients had an unplanned 72-h PED visit resulting in hospitalization after a VUC visit.Conclusion:
Pediatric emergency VUC allowed for high-quality efficient medical care for patients during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in NYC. Although most patients were managed conservatively in their home, telemedicine also enabled rapid identification of patients who required in-person emergency care.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Telemedicine
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Telemed J E Health
Journal subject:
Medical Informatics
/
Health Services
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Tmj.2020.0413
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