Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has drastically impacted health care delivery systems and has resulted in the rapid implementation of telehealth services across many health care specialties. As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to leverage digital mediums to increase patient access to health care, our pediatric pulmonary division sought to measure patient satisfaction with a new telehealth platform. Method: A survey was sent to 281 pediatric pulmonary patients from March 2020 to April 2020. Parents were asked to rate their overall experience with telemedicine. Results: Fifty surveys were completed, and results indicated that overall initial satisfaction with care was high. Eighty-two percent of participants either strongly agreed or agreed that they would use telehealth services again. Discussion: The positive outcome measures may reflect increased patient comfort with integrating telehealth into routine pediatric pulmonary care services. Given high patient satisfaction ratings, we believe that the telehealth platform should be considered for use in routine practice after the COVID-19 pandemic has resolved.
The Pre-Surgical Testing program at Cohen Children's Medical Center launched in 2012. We evaluate approximately 7,000 patients per year who are scheduled for outpatient and inpatient surgeries from all pediatric surgical services. The Pre-Surgical Testing program providers are pediatric and family nurse practitioners (NPs). In 2017, the NP role expanded into the inpatient setting. We started to evaluate patients scheduled for emergency procedures, sedated radiology studies, and invasive procedures. We identified high-risk patients, which provided anesthesiologists with the critical information they needed to deliver safe patient care. In 2018, the NPs further expanded into the ambulatory setting. Our role includes preoperative orders, managing postoperative pain, entering discharge medications, and providing continuing education to nursing staff. From February 2018 to August 2018, first-case start times have improved by 20%. The combination of clinical knowledge and experience makes NPs uniquely qualified to identify high-risk patients scheduled for surgery. Other institutions may consider NPs in their postoperative areas to improve OR start times and, more generally, patient safety.
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