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. 2023 Feb 19;15(2):e35183.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.35183. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Virtual Care Across the Neonatal Intensive Care Continuum

Affiliations

Virtual Care Across the Neonatal Intensive Care Continuum

Purnahamsi Desai et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the need for establishing effective parent and family engagement throughout all aspects of medicine. Though there has been some discussion in the literature regarding the transition from typical outpatient visits to telehealth visits, there has been less written about the inpatient approach to family inclusion. Here, we seek to describe our institution's experience with implementing virtual medicine across the full continuum of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) experience, including inpatient rounding, child life family visits, and outpatient high-risk developmental follow-up after discharge.

Keywords: family-centered care; neonatal intensive care unit; nicu; telehealth; telemedicine; virtual care; virtual medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Average rounding time by engagement type
Average time in minutes spent rounding per patient by engagement modality.
Figure 2
Figure 2. NCCP follow-up rate
NCCP: Neonatal Comprehensive Care Program.
Figure 3
Figure 3. NCCP patient visits in 2020
Indicates the number of visits that occurred in 2020 (in-person versus via telemedicine). NCCP: Neonatal Comprehensive Care Program.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Virtual rounds parent information sheet
Figure 5
Figure 5. Virtual rounds care team information sheet
Figure 6
Figure 6. Virtual rounds care team checklist

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