Contribution of Live Video to Physicians' Remote Assessment of Suspected COVID-19 Patients in an Emergency Medical Communication Centre: A Retrospective Study and Web-Based Survey

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on emergency medical communication centres (EMCC). A live video facility was made available to second-line physicians in an EMCC with a first-line paramedic to receive emergency calls. The objective of this study was to measure the contribution of live video...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2023-02, Vol.20 (4), p.3307
Main Authors: Larribau, Robert, Healey, Beth, Chappuis, Victor Nathan, Boussard, Dominique, Guiche, Florent, Herren, Tara, Gartner, Birgit Andrea, Suppan, Laurent
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communication
Communication in medicine
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Decisions
Dyspnea
Emergency medical care
Emergency medical services
Emergency service
Epidemics
Family physicians
Hospitals
Infections
Influenza
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Nurses
Pandemics
Paramedics
Patients
Physicians
Respiration
Smartphones
Surveys
Telemedicine
Video communication
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Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on emergency medical communication centres (EMCC). A live video facility was made available to second-line physicians in an EMCC with a first-line paramedic to receive emergency calls. The objective of this study was to measure the contribution of live video to remote medical triage. The single-centre retrospective study included all telephone assessments of patients with suspected COVID-19 symptoms from 01.04.2020 to 30.04.2021 in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation of the EMCC and the characteristics of patients who called the two emergency lines (official emergency number and COVID-19 number) with suspected COVID-19 symptoms were described. A prospective web-based survey of physicians was conducted during the same period to measure the indications, limitations and impact of live video on their decisions. A total of 8957 patients were included, and 2157 (48.0%) of the 4493 patients assessed on the official emergency number had dyspnoea, 4045 (90.6%) of 4464 patients assessed on the COVID-19 number had flu-like symptoms and 1798 (20.1%) patients were reassessed remotely by a physician, including 405 (22.5%) with live video, successfully in 315 (77.8%) attempts. The web-based survey (107 forms) showed that physicians used live video to assess mainly the breathing (81.3%) and general condition (78.5%) of patients. They felt that their decision was modified in 75.7% (n = 81) of cases and caught 7 (7.7%) patients in a life-threatening emergency. Medical triage decisions for suspected COVID-19 patients are strongly influenced by the use of live video.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph20043307