No abstract

Introduction: Colombia has 50,912,429 inhabitants. Only 50–70% of the population could effectively access healthcare services. The Emergency Room (ER) is a main contributor to the in-hospital care system, since up to half of the admissions comes through. Telemedicine becomes a tool to facilitate effective access to healthcare services, improve the opportunity of care, reduce diagnostic variability, and reduce costs associated with health. The aim of this study is to describe the experience of a Distance Emergency Care Program through Telemedicine (TelEmergency), to improve specialist access for patients at the Emergency Room (ER) in low- and medium-level care hospitals in Colombia. Methods: Observational descriptive study of a cohort including 1,544 patients during the program’s first two years. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the available data. The data is presented with summarized statistics of sociodemographic, clinical, and patient-care variables. Results: The study included a total of 1,544 patients, the majority were adults between 60 and 79 years of age (n = 491, 32%). More than half were men (n = 832, 54%), and 68% (n = 1,057) belonged to the contributory healthcare regime. The service was requested from 346 municipalities, 70% (n = 1,076) from intermediate and rural settings. The most common diagnoses were related to COVID-19 (n = 356, 22%), respiratory diseases (n = 217, 14%) and cardiovascular diseases (n = 162, 10%). We observed 47% (n = 721) of local admissions either under observation (n = 58, 4%) or hospitalization (n = 403, 26%), limiting the need for hospital transfers. Program operation data revealed that 50% (n = 799) of the requests were answered within two hours by the medical staff. The initial diagnosis was modified in 7% (n = 119) of the patients after being evaluated by specialists at the TelEmergency program. Conclusions: This study shows the operational data collected during the first two years after implementation of the TelEmergency program in Colombia, the first of its kind in the country. Its implementation offered specialized timely management of patients at the ER in low- and medium-level care hospitals, where there is no availability of specialized doctors.

Introduction Colombia has 50,912,429 inhabitants, but only 50–70% of the population can effectively access health care services. The emergency room (ER) is a main contributor to the in-hospital care system since up to half of the admissions come through it. Telemedicine has become a tool to facilitate effective access to health care services, improve the timeliness of care, reduce diagnostic variability, and reduce costs associated with health. The aim of this study is to describe the experience of a Distance Emergency Care Program through Telemedicine (TelEmergency) to improve specialist access for patients at the Emergency Room (ER) in low- and medium-level care hospitals in Colombia. Methods An observational descriptive study of a cohort including 1,544 patients during the program’s first two years was conducted. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the available data. The data are presented with summarized statistics of sociodemographic, clinical, and patient-care variables. Results The study included a total of 1,544 patients, and the majority were adults between 60 and 79 years of age (n = 491, 32%). More than half were men (n = 832, 54%), and 68% (n = 1,057) belonged to the contributory health care regime. The service was requested from 346 municipalities, 70% (n = 1,076) from intermediate and rural settings. The most common diagnoses were related to COVID-19 (n = 356, 22%), respiratory diseases (n = 217, 14%), and cardiovascular diseases (n = 162, 10%). We observed 44% (n = 681) of local admissions either under observation (n = 53, 3%) or hospitalization (n = 380, 24%), limiting the need for hospital transfers. Program operation data revealed that 50% (n = 799) of requests were answered within two hours by the medical staff. The initial diagnosis was modified in 7% (n = 119) of the patients after being evaluated by specialists at the TelEmergency program. Conclusions This study shows the operational data collected during the first two years after the implementation of the TelEmergency program in Colombia, the first of its kind in the country. Its implementation offered specialized timely management of patients at the ER in low- and medium-level care hospitals, where there is no availability of specialized doctors.

Objetivo: Proponer una ruta integral de atención en salud a través de la telesalud para el manejo del síndrome coronario agudo.

Objetivo: el objetivo de este estudio fue identificar la implementación del triaje en los servicios de urgencias hospitalarios, posterior a la divulgación de la resolución 5596 de 2015 del Ministerio de Salud de Colombia, en los hospitales de la subregión Suroeste del departamento de Antioquia. Métodos: estudio observacional descriptivo, tipo corte transversal. Se incluyeron los 23 hospitales públicos de los municipios de la subregión suroeste de Antioquia. Se utilizó muestreo no probabilístico, por conveniencia. Los datos se obtuvieron mediante encuesta y técnica de entrevista estructurada. Resultados: la encuesta fue respondida por funcionarios de los hospitales de los 23 municipios del suroeste antioqueño. Sólo 3 instituciones (13 %) tienen una adecuada implementación de resolución 5596 (política de triaje) del ministerio de salud (adherencia a la resolución mayor al 80 %), el 74 % reportaron una adherencia a la resolución > 20 % y ≤ 80 % y 3 instituciones no lograron un porcentaje de adherencia mayor al 20% a la resolución. Sólo 3 instituciones (13 %) utilizan triaje validado, en otras 3 instituciones (13 %) no saben cuál tipo de triaje usan y en la mayoría de las instituciones (74 %) emplean un triaje no validado internacionalmente. Conclusiones: a pesar de ser una normativa de obligatorio cumplimiento por parte de todos los hospitales del territorio nacional, sólo el 13 % de los hospitales incluidos en el estudio cumplen con los criterios técnicos de la política de triaje del Ministerio de Salud de Colombia.