eConculta: Impact of Virtual Visits in Primary Care

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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eConsulta is a before and after quasi-experimental study without control group and its purpose is to asses the impact of virtual visits in primary care on the frequency of attendance of the patients to the primary care centre. The use of virtual consultations should lower the number of face to face visits to primary care. It also should create satisfaction to both users: primary care professionals and patients.

Detailed Description
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Excess on primary care face to face demands generates a work overload for the professionals, and it could lead to a lower quality of care and less job satisfaction. Not all primary care demands need a face to face encounter so incorporating new technologies into daily practice care such as communication doctor/nurse-patient through a website could be part of the solution. So we designed a study in order to assess the impact of the use of virtual consultation on frequency of attendance and the satisfaction of patients and professionals with the service. It is a before after quasi-experimental multi-centre study with no control group. Agreed voluntarily to participate 13 primary care centres, 20 primary care physicians, 17 nurses them having 16.720 reference adult patients. We designed a website where participants can access the internet and consult their doctor/nurse, who will answer within 48 hours at maximum. The intervention will last 6 months. We believe that the site can be useful by both patient and professional. For some types of patient, the use of the site may increase its accessibility, reduce face to face consultations and improve satisfaction, while the professional makes a more efficient practice.

Official Title
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Before and After Study to Assess the Impact of the Use of Virtual Consultation on Frequency of Patient Attendance, and Satisfaction of Patients and Professionals

Conditions
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Adult

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: eConsulta


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: 18 years or over having a primary care centre assigned to have both physician and nurse participating in the project to use the same electronic clinical recording software Exclusion Criteria: none

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: eConsulta<br>Those patients who are offered to use the eConsulta, a web where they can virtually consult with their primary care doctor or nurse. | Other: eConsulta<br>* It is a web specifically designed for the project where elected patients can consult virtually with their primary care physician and within 48 hours have an answer.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Number of primary care face to face visits of the patients during the 6 month intervention, compared to the number of face to face visits of the same patient, in a 6 month previous period. | Number of face to face visits of each patient (who used the eConsulta web site) to primary care physician or nurse during the 6 months of the intervention (from 01/06/2010 to 01/12/2010) compared to the number of visits of the same patients the same period 1 or 2 years before, depending on the appearance of a swine flu outbreak (2009 if there is a swine flu outbreak or 2008 if there is not). The information source of the number of visits will be the electronic clinical record, which is the same in all the practices participating. | Visits done from 01/06/2010 to 01/12/2010 compared to the himself the same period 1 or 2 years before (depending on the flu) | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Measure the doctor/nurse satisfaction | Satisfaction with the whole service with a 10 point scale. Items: Are you satisfied with the eConsulta? It is easy to use the web? Has it been easy to integrate it with the daily practice? | At the end of the study, 01/12/2010 | 
| Measure the patient satisfaction | Satisfaction with the whole service with a 10 point scale. Items: Are you satisfied with the eConsulta? It is easy to use the web? Would you use it in the future? | At the end of the study, 01/12/2010 | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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User-Computer Interface, Office Visits, Primary Health Care, Patient Satisfaction, Job Satisfaction, Health Services Research