A clinician-to-clinician universal electronic consultation programme at the cardiology department of a Galician healthcare area improves healthcare accessibility and outcomes in elderly patients.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

We aimed to assess longer-term results (accessibility, hospital admissions, and mortality) in elderly patients referred to a cardiology department (CD) from primary care using e-consultation in outpatient care.

Methods and results

We included 9963 patients >80 years from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2019. Until 2012, all patients attended an in-person consultation (2010-2012). In 2013, we instituted an e-consult programme (2013-2019) for all primary care referrals to cardiologists that preceded a patient's in-person consultation when considered. We used an interrupted time series (ITS) regression approach to investigate the impact of e-consultation on (i) cardiovascular hospital admissions and mortality. We also analysed (ii) the total number and referral rate (populat

SUBMITTER: Mazon-Ramos P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10039426 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature