School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations

ConnectER Usage: Are Physicians Comfortable Using Telemedicine for Follow Ups on Non-Visual Diagnoses?

Document Type

Poster

Keywords

ConnectER; Telemedicine; Emergency Medicine; Quality Improvement

Publication Date

Spring 2017

Abstract

ConnectER Usage: Are Physicians Comfortable Using Telemedicine for Follow Ups on Non-Visual Diagnoses?

The ConnectER program provides recently discharged ED patients telemedicine follow up consults. This service minimizes patient burdens of time and travel, and provides patients an alternative if a follow up with a primary care physician is not available in a timely fashion. ER physicians recommend patients to the program based on whether they think a virtual follow up would be medically appropriate and convenient for the patient.

A quality improvement study was initiated to analyze the program’s usage so that we might improve marketing and education for physicians and patients. ED providers, especially those unaccustomed to telemedicine, often think of “visual” diagnoses (e.g skin rash, lacerations, etc.) to be more appropriate for telemedicine follow up than “non-visual” illnesses (e.g. chest pain, headache, etc.). We hypothesized that as physicians gained comfort with ConnectER, the ratio of non-visual to visual diagnoses patients would increase. We analyzed approximately 700 ConnectER referrals, first classifying diagnoses as visual or non-visual. Then we compared the non-visual/visual ratios for each month from the beginning of the program in July 2015 to January 2017.

Our results demonstrate wide month to month variability in the non-visual/visual ratio, but on average the ratio is greater than 1. We will present further analysis of our data and quality improvement plan to enhance ConnectER referrals by ED providers. Critical analysis of telemedicine program utilization is important to enhance engagement by both providers and patients.

Authors

Sameer Singhal, MSI George Washington University SMHS, Washington, DC

Waddaa Redha MD, Instructor, Telemedicine and Digital Health Fellow, George Washington University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC

Neal Sikka MD, Associate Professor, George Washington University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Open Access

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Comments

Poster to be presented at GW Annual Research Days 2017.

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ConnectER Usage: Are Physicians Comfortable Using Telemedicine for Follow Ups on Non-Visual Diagnoses?

ConnectER Usage: Are Physicians Comfortable Using Telemedicine for Follow Ups on Non-Visual Diagnoses?

The ConnectER program provides recently discharged ED patients telemedicine follow up consults. This service minimizes patient burdens of time and travel, and provides patients an alternative if a follow up with a primary care physician is not available in a timely fashion. ER physicians recommend patients to the program based on whether they think a virtual follow up would be medically appropriate and convenient for the patient.

A quality improvement study was initiated to analyze the program’s usage so that we might improve marketing and education for physicians and patients. ED providers, especially those unaccustomed to telemedicine, often think of “visual” diagnoses (e.g skin rash, lacerations, etc.) to be more appropriate for telemedicine follow up than “non-visual” illnesses (e.g. chest pain, headache, etc.). We hypothesized that as physicians gained comfort with ConnectER, the ratio of non-visual to visual diagnoses patients would increase. We analyzed approximately 700 ConnectER referrals, first classifying diagnoses as visual or non-visual. Then we compared the non-visual/visual ratios for each month from the beginning of the program in July 2015 to January 2017.

Our results demonstrate wide month to month variability in the non-visual/visual ratio, but on average the ratio is greater than 1. We will present further analysis of our data and quality improvement plan to enhance ConnectER referrals by ED providers. Critical analysis of telemedicine program utilization is important to enhance engagement by both providers and patients.

Authors

Sameer Singhal, MSI George Washington University SMHS, Washington, DC

Waddaa Redha MD, Instructor, Telemedicine and Digital Health Fellow, George Washington University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC

Neal Sikka MD, Associate Professor, George Washington University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Washington, DC