610 Virtual Burns Care in The Era Of COVID-19: A Regional Burns Unit’s Experience

Autor: K. McGarry, J. Clements, J. Hayes, A. Rashid
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: The British Journal of Surgery
ISSN: 1365-2168
0007-1323
Popis: Introduction In response to the COVID-19 pandemic a virtual burns service was established in Northern Ireland to reduce face-to-face consultations to only complex burns or those necessitating hospital admission to the regional unit. Method A combination of telephone calls, emails, photography, and Microsoft Teams software was utilised to facilitate a virtual review service. Our initial adoption of the system was audited during April and May 2020. Through Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) methodology an electronic tertiary-referral proforma was established prior to closure of the audit cycle in July 2020. Results From the start of lockdown a significant reduction in face-to-face consultations was observed. Given the increasing use of virtual telephone consultation only 19.5% of the unit's total referrals (April, May, and July) were either reviewed face-to-face in dressing clinic or admitted. A target of 100% data point entry (including demographic, clinical, and initial management) for patients entering the virtual service was set. Following implementation of the e-Referral pathway an improvement in both the detail and completeness (95%) of patient referral information was achieved. Conclusions Our experience demonstrates that virtual burns care can be safely and rapidly adapted in response to evolving need. The potential role of virtual care post-COVID, in selected patients, is an exciting one.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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