DETELPROG Study. Effectiveness of a New Model of Scheduled Telephone Referral from Primary Care to Internal Medicine. A Randomised Controlled Study

In Spain, the average waiting time for a specialist consultation is 58 days. A determinant factor that contributes to this situation is the poor communication between primary care and specialised care, which is mainly due to the waiting days for a consultation, number of avoided/avoidable face-to-fa...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Azogil López, Luis Miguel, Pérez Lázaro, Juan José, Medrano Sánchez, Esther María, Gómez Salgado, Juan, Coronado Vázquez, María del Valle
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Huelva (UHU)
Repositorio:Arias Montano. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ariasmontano.uhu.es:10272/16515
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10272/16515
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Referral
eConsult
Curbside consultation
Telemedicine
Primary health care
Waiting list
Patient safety
Quality of health care
Descrição
Resumo:In Spain, the average waiting time for a specialist consultation is 58 days. A determinant factor that contributes to this situation is the poor communication between primary care and specialised care, which is mainly due to the waiting days for a consultation, number of avoided/avoidable face-to-face referrals, and waiting days for the resolution of the process. DETELPROG is a referral system in which the family physician requests a scheduled outpatient internal medicine consultation, integrated into the usual consultations agenda of both physicians, the family, and the outpatient clinic physician, in order to have a telephone consultation. A randomized controlled clinical trial has been carried out to assess the e ectiveness of DELTELPROG. In a sample of 255 patients, the experimental group was referred via a scheduled telephone call, and those in the control group, by face-to-face hospital consultation area. The results showed statistically significant di erences between both groups of 27 days (95% confidence interval (CI): 20–33) regarding specialised consultation, 47 days (95% CI: 17–74) as for the resolution of the process, and 91.7% for avoided face-to-face consultations. The DETELPROG resulted as a low coverage system (53%), which makes it a complementary referral model. It is necessary to make an in-depth analysis of the causes that have led to this technologically low coverage.