Department of Oncology, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs-Central Region-King Abdullah Specialized Children's Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Saudi Electronic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Telemed J E Health. 2021 Nov;27(11):1249-1259. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2020.0489. Epub 2021 Jan 13.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was originally recognized in December 2019 as a case of lung infection in Wuhan, China. COVID-19 has affected the capability of health care experts to treat patients face to face. One initiative to improve the efficacy and convenience of patient care despite the physical distancing limitations has been the application of "virtual clinics" (VCs) as a treatment modality. This study was aimed to investigate the use of VCs as a tool of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. This study was conducted in the ambulatory care setting at King Abdullah Specialized Children Hospital in Riyadh. Respondents were selected from different groups of health care providers. The study was a hospital-based cross-sectional design using an electronic survey. In total, 277 surveys were collected. Principal findings showed the deployment of VCs by 67.2% ( = 186) of providers. Among these providers, 54.3% were female, and only 18.8% of providers were aged >54 years. 98.1% of the respondents have started running VCs since the COVID-19 outbreak, with 47.2% of respondents running between 51 and 100 VCs per month, and the majority (74%) were spending 6-15 min per patient visit. Chronically ill patients constituted 57.7% of the patient's population served. Almost 95% of respondents used electronic prescriptions during their VCs. Most providers (98.1%) used the telephone/mobile as a means of communication with the patient during these VCs. A total of 75.5% of VCs were integrated with electronic health records such as appointment scheduling (77.9%), and 88.3% of the providers were satisfied with their VCs. The major opportunity seen by providers was reducing appointment waiting times (73.4%). The major success metric seen in VCs was increased patient satisfaction as reported by providers (67.9%). In contrast, the major challenge seen was the lack of face-to-face interaction and physical examination (86.8%). VCs are one way of centering the health system around the patient, but careful attention is needed to integrate these services with the current health care delivery system in place and ensure quality care to the patients.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）最初于 2019 年 12 月在中国武汉被认定为一种肺部感染病例。COVID-19 已经影响了医疗专家面对面治疗患者的能力。尽管存在身体距离限制，但提高患者护理效果和便利性的一项举措是应用“虚拟诊所”（VC）作为一种治疗方式。本研究旨在调查虚拟诊所作为沙特阿拉伯 COVID-19 大流行期间远程医疗工具的使用情况。本研究在利雅得阿卜杜拉国王专科医院的门诊环境中进行。调查对象选自不同类别的医疗保健提供者。该研究是一项基于医院的横断面设计，使用电子调查。共收集了 277 份调查。主要发现表明，67.2%（186 名）的提供者部署了虚拟诊所。在这些提供者中，54.3%是女性，只有 18.8%的提供者年龄大于 54 岁。98.1%的受访者自 COVID-19 爆发以来开始运行虚拟诊所，其中 47.2%的受访者每月运行 51 至 100 次虚拟诊所，大多数（74%）每次患者就诊花费 6-15 分钟。慢性病患者构成所服务患者人群的 57.7%。几乎 95%的受访者在虚拟诊所中使用电子处方。大多数提供者（98.1%）在这些虚拟诊所中使用电话/移动电话作为与患者沟通的手段。共有 75.5%的虚拟诊所与电子健康记录集成，例如预约安排（77.9%），88.3%的提供者对虚拟诊所感到满意。提供者看到的主要机会是减少预约等待时间（73.4%）。提供者在虚拟诊所中看到的主要成功指标是患者满意度增加（67.9%）。相比之下，主要挑战是缺乏面对面互动和体检（86.8%）。虚拟诊所是将医疗系统以患者为中心的一种方式，但需要谨慎关注将这些服务与现有的医疗服务提供系统集成，并确保为患者提供高质量的护理。
