Creating the Moorfields’ virtual eye casualty: video consultations to provide emergency teleophthalmology care during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

BackgroundThe COVID-19 crisis forced hospitals in the UK dramatically to reduce outpatient activity. To provide continuity of care and to assist patients reluctant or unable to leave their homes, video consultations were rapidly implemented across routine and emergency ophthalmology services.ObjectiveTo describe the deployment and scaling to a large volume of teleophthalmology using a video consultation platform ‘Attend Anywhere’ in Moorfields Eye Hospital’s accident and emergency (A&E) department (London, UK).MethodPatient satisfaction, waiting time, consultation duration, outcome and management were audited following the launch of the new virtual A&E service.ResultsIn the 12 days following the service launch, 331 patients were seen by video consultation. 78.6% of patients (n=260) were determined not to need hospital A&E review and were managed with advice (n=126), remote prescription (n=57), general practitioner referral (n=27), direct referral to hospital subspecialty services (n=26) or diversion to a local eye unit (n=24). Mean patient satisfaction was 4.9 of 5.0 (n=62). The mean consultation duration was 12 min (range 5–31 min) and the wait time was 6 min (range 0–37 min).ConclusionVideo consultations showed greater than expected usefulness in the remote management of eye disease and supported a substantial reduction in the number of people visiting the hospital.

The Impact of the First Peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic on a Paediatric Ophthalmology Service in the United Kingdom: Experience from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

“…Capacity is more severely limited by social distancing as all patients will attend clinics accompanied by an adult. Although a gamut of teleophthalmology solutions, including remote vision testing, has been trialled and rolled out with moderate degrees of success in adult ophthalmology subspecialties (Bourdon et al 2020;Gillam et al 2020;Kang et al 2020;Kilduff et al 2020;Mintz et al 2020;Crossland et al 2021;Faes et al 2021), it may be more difficult to adapt these to the paediatric population. Our paper reveals a striking statistic: when triaging cancelled outpatient appointments during the first peak at AHCH, only 6.8% were deemed to be suitable for a telephone or video consultation.…”

COVID-19 and ophthalmology: A scientometric analysis

“…Knowing the current trends in research would help develop an interprofessional approach, which will not only help to manage the COVID-19 patients with/without ophthalmic manifestations but also help to mitigate the spread of disease successfully. With a tremendous increase in COVID-19-related publications and different research related to different remote care delivery models in the outpatient,[ 13 14 15 ] inpatient, and emergency room[ 16 17 18 19 ] settings a scientometric map must be generated of all the research currently exisiting in this area. We present a body of publications that quantified country-specific and worldwide coverage of COVID-19 literature pertaining to ophthalmology.…”

A COVID–19-pandémia hatása a szemészeti járóbeteg-szakellátásra az Új Szent János Kórházban, Budapesten

“…A szemészeti telemedicina a szemészeti ellátás fontos részét képezi a pandémia során [36]. Több vezető, nemzetközi szemészeti intézet publikálta tapasztalatait a telemedicina térnyeréséről a járvány első hulláma alatt [37][38][39]. A londoni Moorfields Eye Hospital 2020. március 25-én, másfél nappal a kihirdetett karanténállapotot követően elindította élő videókonzultációs szolgáltatását, amely 1 hónap elteltével már naponta több mint 100 orvos-beteg konzultációt regisztrált [39].…”