Telemedicine Implementation on a Bariatric Outpatient Clinic During COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: an Unexpected Hill-Start
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Telemedicine Implementation on a Bariatric Outpatient Clinic During COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: an Unexpected Hill-Start Matteo Runfola 1
&
Giovanni Fantola 1 & Stefano Pintus 1 & Mauro Iafrancesco 2 & Roberto Moroni 1
Received: 20 May 2020 / Revised: 19 September 2020 / Accepted: 22 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Background SARS-CoV2 outbreak has challenged NHS of many countries. Generalized restriction of movement, together with unprecedented pressure on Health System, disrupted routine care for non-COVID-19 patients. Telemedicine has been promoted to reduce the risk of infections and to offer medical assistance to the restricted population. This paper is aimed to evaluate the impact of tele-consulting technology in a single bariatric center. Materials and Methods Our outpatient clinic reorganized the service from on-site to long-distance video consultations. All patients received a satisfaction questionnaire. The main goals were to evaluate patient compliance and to assess patient satisfaction. Results Of the 33 booked patients who were offered a teleconsultation, 19 (57.6%) participated in the video-call. No significant differences were found between participants and non-participants in terms of age and gender ratio. Urban area residents were 57.9% of the participants versus 42.8% of the non-participants group. Of the participants, 52.6% completed the survey reporting levels of satisfaction ranging from high to very high. Conclusion Telemedicine has been advocated as a useful tool to relieve pressure on the overwhelmed Health Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, e-health technologies are not yet widely adopted. Our initial experience, also compared with national data relating to the digital divide, suggests that the absence of basic computer skills and the lack of confidence with video-call systems may be patient-specific barriers for the implementation of telemedicine. In this context, telemedicine implementation can run up against various patient-related barriers, and several challenges remain for e-health to be integrated into outpatient practice. Keywords Telemedicine . COVID-19 . Bariatric surgery . Outpatient . Digital divide
Introduction Since January 2020, the outbreak of a new coronavirus originated in China (SARS-CoV-2) imposed a great deal of stress on a growing number of National Health Systems and progressively became a global crisis, to such an extent that on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic [1].
* Matteo Runfola [email protected] 1
Department of Surgery, Obesity Surgery Unit, A.O. Brotzu, Piazzale Alessandro Ricchi, 1, 09134 Cagliari, Italy
2
Cardiovascular Sciences Department, Foundation Polyclinic University A Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy
The Italian Government acted quickly and measures to contain the spread of the infections escalated up to the decision to drastically restrict freedom of movement on the entire Italian population
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