Abstract
Background:
Telemedicine serves millions of patients and is transforming healthcare delivery worldwide. In October of 2015, Nemours Children's Health System began offering direct-to-consumer (DTC) pediatric telemedicine on the Nemours CareConnect (NCC) platform.
Introduction:
Currently, there are no descriptive data available on pediatric-specific DTC 24/7 programs. This is the first article to our knowledge that provides data on such a program.
Materials and Methods:
A retrospective data analysis of the first 1,000 visits was conducted. All patient data were precollected and deidentified.
Results:
NCC was accessed for skin-related concerns (18.7%), upper respiratory symptoms (17.5%), fever (15.2%), and gastrointestinal issues (9.7%) most often on Saturdays and Sundays. Patients' ages ranged from 2 weeks to 20 years with the median age of 4 years. The peak time of call was between 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM. Median visit wait time was 2 min 11 s and median treatment time was 12 min 10 s. Patients rated providers and the NCC platform using a 5-star rating system. Over 93% of patients rated providers 5 stars and 86.0% rated the NCC platform 5 stars. Sixty-seven percent of parents reported they would have accessed an urgent care center, emergency room, or retail clinic if NCC were not available.
Discussion:
NCC provides accessible, efficient care and parents are satisfied with the service. The postvisit survey suggested parents would have sought more expensive care if NCC were not available.
Conclusion:
NCC provided descriptive data using an audiovisual model. NCC warrants further investigation in regard to redirection of services.
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