Abstract
BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an unprecedented international emergency, resulting in a need to adapt the existing healthcare systems, in order to enable ongoing patient care despite the current disruptions. Telemedicine may be a viable option to continue hospital workflow, however there are barriers to its implementation. We set out to establish what barriers might exist and to assess the viability of teleclinics within the province KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), as perceived by doctors.MethodsThis was a quantitative, observational, survey-based study targeted at medical doctors working in both the public as well as the private healthcare sector in University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).ResultsOne hundred and forty-seven (147) responses were included. The majority (86%) of respondents felt that telemedicine could provide a useful means to continuing hospital workflow, however, only 47% believed that it was a viable option for their unit. The major barrier identified was a feeling that doctors would-be at-increased medico-legal risk. Only 38.4% of doctors were familiar with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) guidelines on telemedicine usage. Other major barriers included: doctors feeling uncomfortable with not seeing a patient in person or not being able to perform a thorough physical examination. Other reasons identified as potential barriers were doctors foreseeing difficulty in accessing patient medical records and the absence of available systems to order investigations without the patient being physically present.ConclusionTelemedicine is currently not widely utilised in KZN; although most doctors were of the opinion that it could be a useful tool in order to continue the workflow during the pandemic. The major barrier identified were issues surrounding medico-legal coverage.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an unprecedented international emergency, resulting in a need to adapt the existing healthcare systems, in order to enable ongoing patient care despite the current disruptions
We looked at the current utilisation of telemedicine amongst doctors in KZN, and found that over 80% of the doctors who responded to our survey did not utilise telemedicine within the services in which they work
Despite the current low uptake of telemedicine, over 86% of respondents said that they believed that teleclinics would have been a useful way to reduce hospital visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly indicating that doctors feel that telemedicine would provide a meaningful way of continuing workflow
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an unprecedented international emergency, resulting in a need to adapt the existing healthcare systems, in order to enable ongoing patient care despite the current disruptions. Telemedicine may be a viable option to continue hospital workflow, there are barriers to its implementation. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an unprecedented international emergency, resulting in a need to adapt the existing healthcare system to enable ongoing patient care despite the current disruptions. Hospitals worldwide have adapted by changing their policies and cancelling non-urgent medical appointments and services, resulting in a significant decline in patient numbers across all sectors apart from COVID-19 infections.[1]. Despite the easing of restrictions, social distancing continues, with most authorities recommending people to keep distance of 1 and 2 meters apart. The structure of outpatient healthcare will have to undoubtedly account for this change; and this brings with it many challenges, including massive backlogs in outpatient consultations.[2]
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