Qualitative evaluation of the pilot trial of PROCASER , a telemedicine-based method to improve the appropriateness of consultations from Primary Care
Authors
Karina Gallegos
Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de La Frontera. Temuco, Chile y Servicio de Salud Araucanía Sur, Hospital Dr. Hernán Henríquez Aravena. Temuco.
In light of the issue of wait lists (WL) and the high number of unnecessary consultations, the Network of Primary Health Care Centers Project (known as “PROCASER”, for its acronym in Spanish) was born.
Main objective: To evaluate the results of a pilot trial of PROCASER as a method to manage consultations.
Design and Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study, with a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 28 general practitioners.
Over the course of five months, weekly meetings were held via videoconference between general practitioners from four primary health care centers (PHC) and a specialist from the re¬ferral center (Hospital Dr. HHA in Temuco, Chile); which specialist participated depended on the pathology discussed. Each week, clinical cases from the WL that shared a diagnosis were pre¬sented by the PHC physicians to the specialist to discuss the consultation, evaluate its pertinence, and reinforce concepts about the pathology. There were a total of 14 meetings, during which 38 clinical cases were resolved, and 16 pathologies were discussed. At the end of the project, an onli¬ne survey to evaluate the program was administered to the participating physicians.
Results: Of the participating physicians, 79%, answered the survey. Of those, 95% felt that com-munication between medical specialists APS was enhanced by PROCASER, 100% said that their knowledge of pathologies and their referral criteria were strengthened; and 91% said that if the program were continued on an annual basis, it could reduce the number of irrelevant consultations.
Conclusion: While it is not yet possible to know the real impact, Although the quantitative results are not yet available, the results of the survey suggest that PROCASER could be a new way to as-sociate telemedicine to a work method to improve the relevance of consultations and decrease WL.
Keywords:
telemedicine, wait list, primary health care, cross-sectional study, continuing medical education
Gallegos, K. (2018). Qualitative evaluation of the pilot trial of PROCASER , a telemedicine-based method to improve the appropriateness of consultations from Primary Care. Revista Chilena De Salud Pública, 21(2), p. 123–134. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5281.2017.48908
