Aim
To asses if telemedicine with telemonitoring is a clinically useful and secure tool in the tracking of patients with COVID-19.
Methods
A prospective observational study of patients with COVID-19 diagnosis by positive PCR considered high-risk tracked with telemedicine and telemonitoring was conducted in the sanitary area of Lugo between March 17th and April 17th, 2020. Two groups of patients were included: Outpatient Tracing from the beginning and after discharge. Every patient sent a daily clinical questionnaire with temperature and oxygen saturation 3 times a day. Proactive monitoring was done by getting in touch with every patient at least 11 a day.
Results
313 patients (52.4% female) with a total average age of 60.9 (DE 15.9) years were included. Additionally, 2 patients refused to join the program. Since the beginning, 224 were traced outpatient and 89 after being discharged. Among the first category, 38 (16.90%) were referred to Emergency department on 43 occasions; 18 were hospitalized (8.03%), and 2 deceased. Neither deaths nor a matter of vital emergency occurred at home. When including patients after admissions monitoring was done in 304 cases. One patient re-entered (0.32%) to the hospital, and another one left the program (0.32%). The average time of monitoring was 11.64 (SD 3.58) days, and 224 (73.68%) patients were discharged during the 30 days of study.
Conclusions
Our study suggests that telemedicine with home telemonitoring, used proactively, allows for monitoring high-risk patients with COVID-19 in a clinically useful and secure way.
Introduction: the presence of symptoms after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection is frequent and has an impact on patients’ quality of life. The aim of this study is to assess the Health-related Quality of Life of COVID-19 survivors and to ascertain which factors are related to worse results.
Methods: An observational, cross-sectional study has been performed, using, a telephone survey that was administered to all patients with COVID-19 from the first pandemic wave in our healthcare area ten months after the acute infection. Patients with dementia and nursing home residents were excluded. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the EQ-5D instrument and its indices EQ-VAS and EQ-Health Index.
Results: 443 answers were collected. Mean age was 54±16 and 38.4% of patients were male. The most affected domain was anxiety/depression (23.9% of patients) and mobility (16.5%). Mean global EQ-VAS score was 75.8±18.7, and mean EQ-Health Index was 0.884±0.174. Both VAS and Health Index scores were lower in females, patients older than 65 years, patients with comorbidities, and those who needed hospital admission during the acute infection. VAS scores in our sample were lower than in the general Spanish population, but similar to the scores in our region prior to the pandemic. Female sex, hospital admission, and a lower educational status were independently associated to lower EQ-Health Index scoring.
Conclusion: while health self-perception is affected after COVID-19, this might not be directly related to the infection. There exist profiles of patients more prone to a worse quality of life in which interventions may be considered.
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