Sanchez Menan M
Hospital Universitario Infanta Elena, Spain
Title: E-consultation: Improving health-care efficiency through better communication between different care levels
Biography
Biography: Sanchez Menan M
Abstract
Introduction: We have developed a new tool that allows communication between care professionals. This tool leverages new technologies to enable effective, rapid communication between primary-care doctors and hospital’s specialists.
Objectives: The objectives are to provide more agile and faster communication between health professionals, enabling on-line consultation. This new method of communication seeks to avoid unnecessary hospital referrals in some cases. The maximum response time established for the system is two working days. The information provided by both professionals is recorded in both EMR systems.
Material and Methods: An analysis of all e-consultations was carried out. Cases in which a question or other consultation was resolved and where it was recorded in the system that, barring other problems or systems, the patient did not require hospital referral, were considered to be instances in which specialist consultation had been avoided.
Conclusions: A total of 610 e-consultations have been carried out. The department that has received the highest number of consultations is radiology, with 230 (37.7%). The second highest number of e-consultations were seen in in geriatrics, at 97 (15.9%) consultations. The average response time was 2.07 calendar days. Specialist visits were avoided in 201 (32.95%) of all cases/e-consultations. In 30 (4.9%) cases this system has been shown to be a quick and agile means of communication between physicians. It improves the efficiency of our health-care system by reducing the number of patients referred to the hospital.