Health care service and telemonitoring: experience in a medium complexity outpatient care unit

Abstract

Introduction: With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the class councils had to resume the discussion about remote care. The Hospital Estadual de Dermatologia Sanitária Colônia Santa Marta (HDS) implemented the tele-assistance service to support patients who were being assisted in person at the unit. Objective: This study aimed to characterize the teleservice activities carried out at the institution from March to November 2020. Method: This is a cross-sectional analytical study, which characterized the care provided remotely to HDS patients in the period of March to November 2020. Telephone calls and telemonitoring were carried out via the whatsapp application. Results: The medical care services included the specialties of cardiology (n=234), dermatology (n=120), endocrinology (n=323), geriatrics (n=580), orthopedics and traumatology (n=378), psychiatry (n=181) and ophthalmology (n=79). In the multiprofessional area, the sessions included physical therapy (n= 4167), occupational therapy (n= 699), physical education (n= 4603), speech therapy (n= 1859) and psychology (n= 2516). Conclusion: Teleservices kept health services functioning and allowed them to be an effective alternative to face-to-face visits by patients in need of health care, helping to preserve services for those who most needed personal care.