Health Care : Current Reviews

E-CONSULTATION: IMPROVING HEALTH-CARE EFFICIENCY THROUGH BETTER COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT CARE LEVELS

7^th World Congress on Healthcare & Technologies

September 26-27, 2016 London, UK

Sanchez Menan M, Pascual A, Dodero J and Gomez O

Hospital Universitario Infanta Elena, Spain
Vila H. Hospital Universitario Infanta Elena, Spain

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Health Care: Current Reviews

Abstract:

Introduction: We have developed a new tool that allows communication between care professionals. This tool leverages new technologies to enable effective, rapid communication between primary-care doctors and hospital�??s specialists. Objectives: The objectives are to provide more agile and faster communication between health professionals, enabling on-line consultation. This new method of communication seeks to avoid unnecessary hospital referrals in some cases. The maximum response time established for the system is two working days. The information provided by both professionals is recorded in both EMR systems. Material and Methods: An analysis of all e-consultations was carried out. Cases in which a question or other consultation was resolved and where it was recorded in the system that, barring other problems or systems, the patient did not require hospital referral, were considered to be instances in which specialist consultation had been avoided. Conclusions: A total of 610 e-consultations have been carried out. The department that has received the highest number of consultations is radiology, with 230 (37.7%). The second highest number of e-consultations were seen in in geriatrics, at 97 (15.9%) consultations. The average response time was 2.07 calendar days. Specialist visits were avoided in 201 (32.95%) of all cases/e-consultations. In 30 (4.9%) cases this system has been shown to be a quick and agile means of communication between physicians. It improves the efficiency of our health-care system by reducing the number of patients referred to the hospital.

Biography :

Marta Sánchez Menán received her medical degree from the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid, where her specialist field of study was Public and Community Medicine. She later earned her Ph.D. in medicine (cum laude) from the same university, after which she began work at Hospital Universitario Gregorio Marañón, furthering her research pursuits. For the last 11 years she has worked as Medical Director in several hospitals belonging to the Quirónsalud Group. Sanchez Menan currently occupies the position of Medical Director at Hospital Universitario Infanta Elena, where her investigations are focused on different topics concerning health-care management.

Email: msanchezm@quironsalud.es