Medical Student Patient Outreach to Ensure Continuity of Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Autor:	Belzer A; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Yeagle EM; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Kohlenberg LK; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Solberg M; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Gudbranson E; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Budge M; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Batchelor HM; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Fitzpatrick SE; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.; Medical Scientist Training Program (MD-PhD), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Zhao A; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.; Medical Scientist Training Program (MD-PhD), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Armengol VD; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Hassan SF; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Shum M; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Bia M; Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Bia F; Medical Scientist Training Program (MD-PhD), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Desai NR; Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA., Kahn PA; Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Telemedicine reports [Telemed Rep] 2021 Feb 19; Vol. 2 (1), pp. 56-63. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Feb 19 (Print Publication: 2021).
DOI:	10.1089/tmr.2020.0030
Abstrakt:	Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yale New Haven Health System began rescheduling nonurgent outpatient appointments as virtual visits in March 2020. While Yale New Haven Health expanded its telemedicine infrastructure to accommodate this shift, many appointments were delayed and patients faced considerable uncertainty. Objective: Medical students created the Medical Student Task Force (MSTF) to help ensure continuity of care by calling patients whose appointments were delayed during this transition to telemedicine. Methods: Eighty-five student volunteers called 3765 internal medicine patients with canceled appointments, completing screening for 2197 patients. Volunteers screened for health care needs, assessed preferences for future appointments, and offered emotional support and information about COVID-19. Urgent or emergent patient concerns were triaged and escalated to providers. In this analysis, we used a mixed-methods approach: call information and provider responses were analyzed quantitatively, and patient feedback was analyzed qualitatively via thematic analysis. Results: Ninety-one percent of patients screened found the MSTF calls helpful. Twenty-one percent of patients reported health concerns, with 1% reporting urgent concerns escalated to and addressed by providers. Themes of patient comments included gratitude for outreach and social contact, utility of calls, and well-wishes for health care workers. Conclusions: By calling patients whose appointments had been canceled during a rapid transition to telemedicine, the MSTF helped bridge a potential gap in care by offering patients communication with their care teams, information, and support. We propose that this model could be used in other care systems urgently transitioning to outpatient telemedicine, whether during ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19 or other public health emergencies. Competing Interests: N.R.D. reports grants and personal fees from Amgen, grants and personal fees from Astra Zeneca, grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, grants and personal fees from Cytokinetics, grants and personal fees from Novartis, grants and personal fees from Relypsa, and personal fees from SC Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work. No other authors report conflicts of interest. (© Annika Belzer et al., 2021; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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