Abstract
48 Background: Free cross-platform instant messaging is a popular way of communicating in Panama. Is it possible to apply this in Palliative Care (PC)? Methods: This is a descriptive transversal study of some problems we could solve internally with the help of this cell phone-based application. The universe is the total of consultations of the PC Pediatric Support Team in Panamá Children’s Hospital to the National Program of PC from May 2016 to July 2018. First, we developed a chat group, so all 55 members of the national palliative program can share specific information related to PC topics. We describe the most common problems that we can solve with the help of instant messaging technology such as: 1. Presentation of cases at the time of their going-back home from the hospital-team to the community-team. 2. Presentation of urgent cases to the National Aero-Naval Force to be transported by boat or plane. 3. Education of mothers on specific problems they have at home. Results: We had 113 consultations in pediatric palliative care group. Of those, 78% had to be presented to the community-health-care-center (88 cases). The time-of-response was in the range of 5-120 minutes. We had to arrange sanitary transportation by boat or plane in 14% of the cases. Of those cases we obtained a response by the Aero-Naval force in less than 24 hours. We solved specific palliative symptom problems such as: fever, administration of the rescue dose, mucositis, and coping problems in some patients that lived more than two hours from the nearest health-center. For this we used educational videos made for this purpose. Conclusions: Instant messaging technology is used for the provision of palliative care communication, safety transportation and clinical problem solving. It had to be used in conditions that protect the privacy of patients and families. This current study suggest that this is a new opportunity that must be considered for its efficiency in solving specific problems.
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