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. 2020 Aug;27(3):e100179.
doi: 10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100179.

Creating the Moorfields' virtual eye casualty: video consultations to provide emergency teleophthalmology care during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Caroline Ls Kilduff  1 , Alice Ap Thomas  1 , Juliet Dugdill  1 , Edward J Casswell  1 , Marcin Dabrowski  1 , Claire Lovegrove  1 , Dawn A Sim  2 , Gordon R Hay  1   3 , Peter Bm Thomas  4
Affiliations

Creating the Moorfields' virtual eye casualty: video consultations to provide emergency teleophthalmology care during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Caroline Ls Kilduff et al. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 crisis forced hospitals in the UK dramatically to reduce outpatient activity. To provide continuity of care and to assist patients reluctant or unable to leave their homes, video consultations were rapidly implemented across routine and emergency ophthalmology services.

Objective: To describe the deployment and scaling to a large volume of teleophthalmology using a video consultation platform 'Attend Anywhere' in Moorfields Eye Hospital's accident and emergency (A&E) department (London, UK).

Method: Patient satisfaction, waiting time, consultation duration, outcome and management were audited following the launch of the new virtual A&E service.

Results: In the 12 days following the service launch, 331 patients were seen by video consultation. 78.6% of patients (n=260) were determined not to need hospital A&E review and were managed with advice (n=126), remote prescription (n=57), general practitioner referral (n=27), direct referral to hospital subspecialty services (n=26) or diversion to a local eye unit (n=24). Mean patient satisfaction was 4.9 of 5.0 (n=62). The mean consultation duration was 12 min (range 5-31 min) and the wait time was 6 min (range 0-37 min).

Conclusion: Video consultations showed greater than expected usefulness in the remote management of eye disease and supported a substantial reduction in the number of people visiting the hospital.

Keywords: health care; medical informatics; patient care.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Growth of the Moorfields’ virtual A&E service following launch on 25 March 2020 until 15 May 2020, visualised in the bespoke R/Shiny app. A&E, accident and emergency department.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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