Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Telemedicine Visits in a Pediatric Gastroenterology Service in the Context of COVID-19

Cristina Adroher Mas (), Celia Calvo Aroca, Ricard Casadevall Llandrich, Francesc López Seguí, Javier Martin Carpi and Francesc García-Cuyàs
Additional contact information
Cristina Adroher Mas: Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Catalan Ministry of Health, 08950 Barcelona, Spain
Celia Calvo Aroca: Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Catalan Ministry of Health, 08950 Barcelona, Spain
Ricard Casadevall Llandrich: Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Catalan Ministry of Health, 08950 Barcelona, Spain
Francesc López Seguí: Center for Research in Health and Economics, Pompeu Fabra University (CRES-UPF), 08002 Barcelona, Spain
Javier Martin Carpi: Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Catalan Ministry of Health, 08950 Barcelona, Spain
Francesc García-Cuyàs: Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, Catalan Ministry of Health, 08950 Barcelona, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-7

Abstract: Background: During the first months of COVID-19, the Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition service of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, a leading pediatric center in Spain, introduced a new model of non-face-to-face care. Objective: To evaluate the impact of telephone consultations compared to those conducted face-to-face on healthcare utilization. Methodology: Two main indicators of effectiveness are used: the degree of resolution (percentage of first telemedicine visits that did not generate any new visits in the following 4 and 12 months) and the average number of subsequent visits. A distinction was made between visits for general pathologies (less complex) and those for pathologies treated in monographic consultations (chronic or complex pathologies). Effectiveness at 4 and 12 months was also compared. Results: After 4 months from the first visit, the degree of resolution is lower in the first telemedicine visits than in face-to-face visits for both general pathologies and those of monographic agendas for chronic and complex pathologies. After twelve months, the first general telemedicine visits are less resolute than face-to-face visits, while the resolution rate is the same for chronic and complex pathology visits. Each telemedicine visit generates on average more visits than face-to-face visits. In the short term, 133.4% more in the case of general visits and 51.4% more in the case of chronic and complex visits. In the long term, general telemedicine visits generate 57.31% more visits, while no statistically significant difference is observed between chronic and complex face-to-face and telemedicine visits. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the resolution capacity of the non-face-to-face model in pediatric care in the pandemic context is generally lower and generates more successive visits than the face-to-face model. This lower performance of the telemedicine model should be counterbalanced with its advantages.

Keywords: gastroenterology; pediatrics; effectiveness; non-face-to-face care; health economics; telemedicine; COVID (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15999/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15999/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15999-:d:988998

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().