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. 2020 Jul;60(1):e54-e59.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.04.001. Epub 2020 Apr 10.

Rapid Implementation of Inpatient Telepalliative Medicine Consultations During COVID-19 Pandemic

Jessi Humphreys  1 , Laura Schoenherr  2 , Giovanni Elia  2 , Naomi Tzril Saks  2 , Chelsea Brown  3 , Susan Barbour  2 , Steven Z Pantilat  2
Affiliations

Rapid Implementation of Inpatient Telepalliative Medicine Consultations During COVID-19 Pandemic

Jessi Humphreys et al. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

As coronavirus disease 2019 cases increase throughout the country and health care systems grapple with the need to decrease provider exposure and minimize personal protective equipment use while maintaining high-quality patient care, our specialty is called on to consider new methods of delivering inpatient palliative care (PC). Telepalliative medicine has been used to great effect in outpatient and home-based PC but has had fewer applications in the inpatient setting. As we plan for decreased provider availability because of quarantine and redeployment and seek to reach increasingly isolated hospitalized patients in the face of coronavirus disease 2019, the need for telepalliative medicine in the inpatient setting is now clear. We describe our rapid and ongoing implementation of telepalliative medicine consultation for our inpatient PC teams and discuss lessons learned and recommendations for programs considering similar care models.

Keywords: COVID-19; Inpatient; coronavirus; hospital medicine; telehealth; telemedicine.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Example workflow for inpatient telepalliative consultation. PCS = palliative care services.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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