COVID-19 and telemedicine: Immediate action required for maintaining healthcare providers well-being

Moazzami, Bobak; Razavi-Khorasani, Niloofar; Moghadam, Arash Dooghaie; Farokhi, Ermia; Rezaei, Nima

doi:10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104345

Cited by 350 publications

(337 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…There is a clear need for immediate action to safeguard the welfare of the health and care workforce [3]. In addition to fears around COVID-19 exposure, anxieties related to shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) or other essential equipment and the challenges of family support and childcare while they work, healthcare workers may experience irregular hours and higher workloads, coupled with anxiety, as they enter new or unfamiliar clinical roles [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Workers: A Digital Learning Package

Blake

Bermingham

Johnson

et al. 2020

IJERPH

548

557

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The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) will undoubtedly have psychological impacts for healthcare workers, which could be sustained; frontline workers will be particularly at risk. Actions are needed to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health by protecting and promoting the psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers during and after the outbreak. We developed and evaluated a digital learning package using Agile methodology within the first three weeks of UK outbreak. This e-package includes evidence-based guidance, support and signposting relating to psychological wellbeing for all UK healthcare employees. A three-step rapid development process included public involvement activities (PPIs) (STEP 1), content and technical development with iterative peer review (STEP 2), and delivery and evaluation (STEP 3). The package outlines the actions that team leaders can take to provide psychologically safe spaces for staff, together with guidance on communication and reducing social stigma, peer and family support, signposting others through psychological first aid (PFA), self-care strategies (e.g., rest, work breaks, sleep, shift work, fatigue, healthy lifestyle behaviours), and managing emotions (e.g., moral injury, coping, guilt, grief, fear, anxiety, depression, preventing burnout and psychological trauma). The e-package includes advice from experts in mental wellbeing as well as those with direct pandemic experiences from the frontline, as well as signposting to public mental health guidance. Rapid delivery in STEP 3 was achieved via direct emails through professional networks and social media. Evaluation included assessment of fidelity and implementation qualities. Essential content was identified through PPIs (n = 97) and peer review (n = 10) in STEPS 1 and 2. The most important messages to convey were deemed to be normalisation of psychological responses during a crisis, and encouragement of self-care and help-seeking behaviour. Within 7 days of completion, the package had been accessed 17,633 times, and healthcare providers had confirmed immediate adoption within their health and wellbeing provisions. Evaluation (STEP 3, n = 55) indicated high user satisfaction with content, usability and utility. Assessment of implementation qualities indicated that the package was perceived to be usable, practical, low cost and low burden. Our digital support package on 'psychological wellbeing for healthcare workers' is free to use, has been positively evaluated and was highly accessed within one week of release. It is available here: Supplementary Materials. This package was deemed to be appropriate, meaningful and useful for the needs of UK healthcare workers. We recommend provision of this e-package to healthcare workers alongside wider strategies to support their psychological wellbeing during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Workers: A Digital Learning Package

Blake

Bermingham

Johnson

et al. 2020

IJERPH

548

557

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Least but not last, as remarked by Moazzamia et al, the Telemedicine has the ability to reinforce those health care workers that have been quarantined at home after exposure to COVID-19 and employ quarantined physicians to communicate with patients remotely via computer. 15 To achieve these goals our facility had to modify Information Technology (IT) related to the waiting times and rescheduled all booked visits, organize spaces and modality of video calling, using the smart work too, and readapt the terms of payment to the new needs, although some limitations including payment, credentialing, privacy, ethical consideration, loss of the patient medical relationship and staffing of specialists are exist too, and necessarly, they needs to be taken into account. Specially IT has been a cornerstone of organizational response to coordinating operational and clinical needs and must rapidly rearrange infrastructure, policies, and priorities to remain responsive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…16 Certainly, telemedicine cannot replace in person patient care, and not all clinical situations are appropriate for video consultations, 17 but could benefit other frontline physicians by reducing their workload and optimizing their time to attending to patients being in a critically-ill condition. 15 However, as reported by Moazzamia et al, creating telemedicine program takes time and does not happen overnight but it requires sources, funding and precise guidelines. 15 Besides, telemedicine requires a new dynamic approach to the patient, using a distinctive standard of care dedicate for telemedicine including rules about the physician-patient relationship, electronic prescribing and in-person follow-up.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Telemedicine: A cornerstone of healthcare assistance during the recent pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 but also a great opportunity for the future. A pilot experience in the largest Teaching Hospital in Southern Italy.

Tartaglia

Anna

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: At the end of 2019, Wuhan, China, experienced an outbreak of a novel coronavirus. The epidemiologic burden of COVID-19 is constantly evolving, with numbers of infected persons, hospital admissions and deaths growing near exponentially. The recent pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide caught the health care systems in every country around the world by storm and without a proper defense mechanism to cope and control such a pandemic. In fact, this outbreak is causing an overwhelming burden of illnesses that stresses health system capacity and adverse effects on healthcare workers including the risk of infection. In this context, telemedicine has been promoted and scaled up to reduce the risk of transmission. In this paper the Authors reports their own experience with Telemedicine. Methods: During the “lockdown”, the AOU“Federico II” was forced to create peculiar pathways to ensure the safety of the patients and medical staff, and to keep an appropriate medical assistance, therefore it was introduced the telemedicine, wherever possible, by modifying the Information Technology (IT) related to the waiting times, rescheduling all booked visits and identifying several outpatient’s clinics suitable for telemedicine activities. Besides, safe pathways were properly studied to screening all patients who had a medical consult in person.Results: Since the introduction of telemedicine service, 953 consultations were provided in this way, about 13 % of all medical consults delivered by AOU “Federico II” in this period; 97,38% of them were follow-up visits, that otherwise would have been missed during the current pandemic, so an economic loss has been avoided. In addition, it has been calculated that, using Telemedicine visits vs a face-to-face consultation, about 65-70% of direct costs were spared by our Healthcare Company.Conclusions: Telemedicine has been the keystone that has allowed a rapid, appropriate response of whole overloaded healthcare systems to current Pandemic, and, as reported by Ohannessian et al., all stakeholders are encouraged to address the challenges and collaborate to promote the safe and evidence-based use of telemedicine during the current pandemic and future outbreaks, and the COVID-19 pandemic is a call to adopt the necessary regulatory changes supporting wide adoption of telemedicine.

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“…27 Others have advocated for telemedicine as a platform of protection of staff, as well as a way to reduce the burnout rate of health care providers, as it has become clear that telemedicine and telehealth not only benefit the patients, but can also be used as a model of health care protection in a highly infected and stressed environment. 28 In response to COVID-19, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services has permitted patients to be seen through videoconferencing in their homes, without having to travel to a qualifying ''originating site'' for Medicare telehealth encounters. Furthermore, the Drug Enforcement Administration approved an exception that allows prescriptions for controlled substances through telemedicine without a prior in-person evaluation.…”

Section: Covid-19 and The Rise Of Telemedicinementioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective on COVID-19: Finally, Telemedicine at Center Stage

Latifi

Doarn

2020

Telemedicine and e-Health

117

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The new world order caused by COVID-19 virus, associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome, multiple organ failure, and very high mortality, has brought about many changes to our world. Suddenly, the medical community, and those who finance the health care sector, realized that telemedicine and telepresence are applicable, desirable, acceptable, and much sought after by our patients and we can manage just about every disease and condition. Although, by and large, telemedicine has faced challenges and perhaps some resistance, despite its great potential, it has become evident that telemedicine can provide rapid, safe, and high-quality care remotely during this pandemic, the largest one since 1918. Perhaps one benefit of suffering through the COVID-19 pandemic will be the establishment of a new virtual medical world order, and that telemedicine has taken its deserving place in health care: prime time and a center stage.

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COVID-19 and telemedicine: Immediate action required for maintaining healthcare providers well-being

Cited by 350 publications

References 3 publications

Mitigating the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Workers: A Digital Learning Package

Mitigating the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Workers: A Digital Learning Package

Telemedicine: A cornerstone of healthcare assistance during the recent pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 but also a great opportunity for the future. A pilot experience in the largest Teaching Hospital in Southern Italy.

Perspective on COVID-19: Finally, Telemedicine at Center Stage

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