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. 2022 Aug;28(7):494-497.
doi: 10.1177/1357633X20943339. Epub 2020 Jul 23.

A descriptive analysis of an on-demand telehealth approach for remote COVID-19 patient screening

Raj M Ratwani  1   2 , David Brennan  3 , William Sheahan  3 , Allan Fong  1 , Katharine Adams  1 , Allyson Gordon  3 , Mary Calabrese  4 , Elizabeth Hwang  3 , Mark Smith  2   4 , Ethan Booker  2   3
Affiliations

A descriptive analysis of an on-demand telehealth approach for remote COVID-19 patient screening

Raj M Ratwani et al. J Telemed Telecare. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 requires methods for screening patients that adhere to physical distancing and other Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. There is little data on the use of on-demand telehealth to meet this need.

Methods: The functional performance of on-demand telehealth as a COVID-19 remote patient screening approach was conducted by analysing 9270 patient requests.

Results: Most on-demand telehealth requests (5712 of 9270 total requests; 61.6%) had a visit reason that was likely COVID-19 related. Of these, 79.1% (4518 of 5712) resulted in a completed encounter and 20.9% (1194 of 5712) resulted in left without being seen. Of the 4518 completed encounters, 19.1% were referred to an urgent care centre, emergency department or COVID-19 testing centre. The average completed encounter wait time was 26.5 min and the mean visit length was 8.8 min. For patients that completed an encounter 42.8% (1935 of 4518) stated they would have sought in-person care and 9.1% stated they would have done nothing if on-demand telehealth was unavailable.

Discussion: On-demand telehealth can serve as a low-barrier approach to screen patients for COVID-19. This approach can prevent patients from visiting healthcare facilities, which reduces physical contact and reduces healthcare worker use of personal protective equipment.

Keywords: COVID-19; Telehealth; pandemic; screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Likely COVID-19 encounter trajectory.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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