Background and Objectives
In 2009 Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest HMO, and MedTrix International established a novel “Pediatrician On-line” service, which provides medical advice to parents when community clinics are unavailable. The service is provided by home based pediatricians equipped with computers used for addressing voice and video on-line calls, allowing access to patients' medical records, and issuing electronic prescriptions. The aim of this presentation is to describe and analyze the function of this new telemedicine medical service.
Methods Retrospective analysis of medical files, performance and quality of care of the “Pediatrician 0n-line” service.
Study period: November 2009 - November 2013
Results During the study period 550,000 eligible calls were made. The number of video calls increased from 8% to 35.5% during the study period. Seventy five percent of calls were related to patients younger than three years from 1100 cities and villages throughout Israel. Chief complaints were fever (19%), respiratory (17%) and gastrointestinal (12%) diseases. Injuries accounted for 1% of the calls. The average length of consultation was 4 minutes. Twenty percent of patients were referred to emergency departments and 10% were given digital medical prescriptions. Only one major complication occurred. Parents' satisfaction from the service was scored at 9.4 out of 10, on average.
Conclusion
Pediatric emergency telemedicine is a promising evolving field aimed at delivering high quality medicine to patients in remote places effectively and safely, with a very high patient satisfaction. Evidence based guidelines still need to be developed.
