Evaluating the impact of a virtual outpatient care programme in preventing hospitalizations, emergency department visits and mortality for patients with COVID-19: a matched cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To evaluate the impact of virtual care in preventing unnecessary healthcare visits for patients with SARS-CoV-2.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective matched cohort study, evaluating the COVID-19 Expansion to Outpatients (COVIDEO) programme involving virtual assessments for all positive patients in the Sunnybrook assessment centre from January 2020 to June 2021, followed by risk-stratified routine follow-up, couriering of oxygen saturation devices, and 24 hour/day direct-to-physician pager for urgent questions. We linked COVIDEO data to province-wide datasets, matching each eligible COVIDEO patient to ≤10 other Ontario SARS-CoV-2 patients on age, sex, neighbourhood, and date. The primary outcome was emergency department (ED) visit, hospitalization or death within

SUBMITTER: Belzile MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10091723 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature