Today, largely due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has become a reality. There are many health professionals who make a first diagnosis to their patients through a phone call or even through a video call. In other words, queries of this type seem to be here to stay.
If you are a doctor or health professional and you want to establish telemedicine in your office and you want to do it in a totally effective way, here are some tips to achieve it in a simple way and so that your patients feel totally satisfied with the service that you have provided. borrowed.
Telemedicine consultations must be scheduled in advance
One of the main tips to keep in mind is that all telemedicine consultations must be scheduled well in advance. In other words, each health professional must design their own agenda, taking into account that these consultations can be simple or very complex, so you should take into account the time you would have to dedicate to each patient.
The patient, for his part, should have information about the approximate time that the telemedicine call will take place and also the telephone number from which he will be called. It would also be perfect if the patient had institutional information with advice such as having a pen and paper ready to write down, glasses (if she uses them to read or write) and a list of the usual medication she takes. In case you could not contact the patient, never leave a message on the answering machine.
Before starting the call, as a medical professional, you should review the patient’s medical history such as conditions and problems, latest notes and usual treatments. Likewise, in follow-up consultations it will also be useful to prepare the information you need to obtain as a checklist.
Never interrupt the patient during the consultation
When the patient picks up the phone, don’t hesitate to introduce yourself with your name and job title. You should also ask for the reference patient or caregiver, specifying the patient you are going to treat.
Once the presentation is made, give the patient the opportunity to explain the reason for the consultation and let him speak without interrupting him with questions. You can start the telemedicine consultation with phrases such as “tell me how it went since the last call”, “explain the reason you wanted to consult” or a simple “tell me”. You can also write down all the doubts that arise to ask them later if they have not been explained during the patient’s speech.
You should also make a summary of what has been exposed to ensure understanding, using expressions such as “if I have understood you well… you have had” and ask for clarifications, since in this way you will check if all the necessary information has been obtained.
Finally, you should decide if this telemedicine consultation is appropriate or if your patient will need a face-to-face consultation. To know if a face-to-face consultation is needed, you should take into account some aspects such as the following:
- The diagnosis it is not clear
- Is there a red flag
- The course is not as expected.
- If any face-to-face exploratory finding would modify the course of action.
- If the interlocutor has a high level of anxiety and an adequate connection is not achieved
- If the patient needs any treatment, presence
Once this is done, the telemedicine consultation should end with you, as a professional, recording everything that happened in the patient’s clinical history.
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