Adoption of Telemedicine for Postoperative Follow-Up After Inpatient Cancer-Related Surgery.
JCO Oncol Pract
; 18(7): e1091-e1099, 2022 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1736465
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes in health care delivery, including the rapid adoption of telemedicine across multiple specialties and practice environments. This includes postoperative visits (POV), despite limited data on outcomes following these telemedicine POV. We sought to determine whether these types of visits successfully identify and address postoperative complications when compared with in-person POV.METHODS:
This was a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing elective inpatient cancer-related surgery from March 2020 through December 2020. The exposure variable was type of POV (telemedicine v in-person). The primary outcome was unplanned hospital readmission within 90 days, and secondary outcomes included 30-day readmission, length of stay of first readmission, and mortality.RESULTS:
Five-hundred thirty-five patients underwent elective inpatient operations and met our inclusion criteria. Of these, 98 (18.5%) had an initial telemedicine POV. There was no difference in 90-day readmission on the basis of POV type (16.3% telemedicine v 16.5% in-person, P = .99). Reasons for readmission did not differ between patients who underwent a telemedicine POV compared with in-person POV (all P > .05). After adjustment for patients' demographic and clinical factors, telemedicine POV was not associated with 90-day readmission (odds ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.43 to 1.70; P = .77).CONCLUSION:
Telemedicine POV use adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic did not increase risk of readmission when compared with in-person visits following inpatient oncologic surgery. These data can help inform policy on the continued use and application of telemedicine after the pandemic.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Telemedicine
/
COVID-19
/
Neoplasms
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
JCO Oncol Pract
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS