Adroher i Mas, CristinaCalvo Aroca, CeliaCasadevall Llandrich, RicardLópez Seguí, Francesc, 1991-Martin Carpi, JavierGarcía Cuyàs, Francesc2023-11-272023-11-272022Adroher C, Calvo C, Casadevall R, López F, Martin J, García-Cuyàs F. Evaluation of the effectiveness of telemedicine visits in a pediatric gastroenterology service in the context of COVID-19. IJERPH. 2022 Dec 1;19(23):15999. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph1923159991660-4601http://hdl.handle.net/10230/58380Background: During the first months of COVID-19, the Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition service of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, a leading pediatric center in Spain, introduced a new model of non-face-to-face care. Objective: To evaluate the impact of telephone consultations compared to those conducted face-to-face on healthcare utilization. Methodology: Two main indicators of effectiveness are used: the degree of resolution (percentage of first telemedicine visits that did not generate any new visits in the following 4 and 12 months) and the average number of subsequent visits. A distinction was made between visits for general pathologies (less complex) and those for pathologies treated in monographic consultations (chronic or complex pathologies). Effectiveness at 4 and 12 months was also compared. Results: After 4 months from the first visit, the degree of resolution is lower in the first telemedicine visits than in face-to-face visits for both general pathologies and those of monographic agendas for chronic and complex pathologies. After twelve months, the first general telemedicine visits are less resolute than face-to-face visits, while the resolution rate is the same for chronic and complex pathology visits. Each telemedicine visit generates on average more visits than face-to-face visits. In the short term, 133.4% more in the case of general visits and 51.4% more in the case of chronic and complex visits. In the long term, general telemedicine visits generate 57.31% more visits, while no statistically significant difference is observed between chronic and complex face-to-face and telemedicine visits. Conclusion: The results of this study show that the resolution capacity of the non-face-to-face model in pediatric care in the pandemic context is generally lower and generates more successive visits than the face-to-face model. This lower performance of the telemedicine model should be counterbalanced with its advantages.application/pdfeng© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315999GastroenterologyPediatricsEffectivenessNon-face-to-face careHealth economicsTelemedicineCOVIDinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess