Overview of teleconsultations after deployment of telehealth plantform in RS

Resumo

Introdução: Telehealth is the use of modern technologies of information and communication to activities remotely related to health at various care levels. Teleconsulting is a consultation between health professionals, by virtual means, synchronous or asynchronous, whose goal is to answer questions of clinical practice and the process of work of teams of Primary Health Care (PHC).

Objetivos: To present the number of answered teleconsultations, the professionals who have requested more and satisfaction with the answers since the implementation of the Ministry of Health (MH) Platform for Telehealth in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Metodologia ou Descrição da Experiência: Since 2012 an electronic platform developed by TelessaúdeRS for the Ministry of Health is available with intent to manage the flow of teleconsultations to the centers of Telehealth in Brazil. All teleconsultation request and answered by the Center for Telehealth RS (TelessaúdeRS / UFRGS) between October 2012 and September 2013 were selected. The teleconsultation are answered in two ways: asynchronous (through short text produced within 72 hours) and synchronous (via web conferencing, real-time), and aim to qualify the work of PHC teams and strengthen the attributes of Primary Care.

Resultados: The total number of teleconsultations was 3,565 (3,423 asynchronous and 142 synchronous). The professionals who request more solicitations are nurses (1,316), community health workers (730) and physicians (696). 823 (24.04%) were evaluated for satisfaction, with 784 (95.26%) reporting have their questions answered and be very satisfied or satisfied with the response received, 17 (2.07%) indifferent and 22 (2.67%) dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. All teleconsultations classified as unsatisfactory suffer audit and contact by the regulation team.

Conclusão ou Hipóteses: The low connectivity in units of health care is a barrier to access to telehealth. However, with the internet, the telehealth platform is available. The satisfaction above 95% is too high, according to the quality that I try to print in preparing responses. Even so, the number of teleconsultation request is still short of what we believe is required to qualify the practice in PHC.