Abstract
Objectives Our goal was to describe the experiences after the launch of a pediatric emergency telemedicine program at a large, urban, academic medical center. Methods We launched 3 unique pediatric emergency telemedicine programs at an urban, academic medical center: direct-to-consumer pediatric virtual urgent care, pediatric emergency department (PED) telemedicine follow-up, and telemedicine medical screening examination in the PED. Results We evaluated 84 patients via direct-to-consumer pediatric virtual urgent care with the most common chief complaint related to fever, dermatologic, or respiratory systems; we referred 12% to the PED, and 20% of those required hospital admission. We evaluated 38 patients via PED telemedicine follow-up; we referred 19% back to the PED, and 43% of those required hospital admission. Median duration for a telemedicine encounter was 10 minutes. We screened 3809 patients in the PED using telemedicine medical screening examination. Conclusions We offer a description of an innovative and comprehensive new pediatric emergency telemedicine program implemented at a large, urban, academic medical center. Our initial findings demonstrate short visit times, antibiotic stewardship, and low rates of PED referral and subsequent admission for patients who use a telemedicine service. We plan to further examine the impact of pediatric emergency telemedicine on the care of children as our program expands.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | e104-e107 |
Journal | Pediatric Emergency Care |
Volume | 36 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- direct-to-consumer
- follow-up
- health care
- medical screening examination
- telemedicine
- virtual
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Emergency Medicine