Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Contribution of Live Video to Physicians’ Remote Assessment of Suspected COVID19 Patients in an Emergency Medical Communication Centre: A Retrospective Study and Web-Based Survey

Robert Larribau
* ORCID logo ,
Beth Healey
ORCID logo ,
Victor Nathan Chappuis
,
Dominique Boussard
,
Florent Guiche
,
Tara Herren
,
Birgit Andrea Gartner
ORCID logo ,
Laurent Suppan
ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 23 January 2023 / Approved: 24 January 2023 / Online: 24 January 2023 (08:20:00 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Larribau, R.; Healey, B.; Chappuis, V.N.; Boussard, D.; Guiche, F.; Herren, T.; Gartner, B.A.; Suppan, L. Contribution of Live Video to Physicians’ Remote Assessment of Suspected COVID-19 Patients in an Emergency Medical Communication Centre: A Retrospective Study and Web-Based Survey. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 3307. Larribau, R.; Healey, B.; Chappuis, V.N.; Boussard, D.; Guiche, F.; Herren, T.; Gartner, B.A.; Suppan, L. Contribution of Live Video to Physicians’ Remote Assessment of Suspected COVID-19 Patients in an Emergency Medical Communication Centre: A Retrospective Study and Web-Based Survey. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 3307.

Abstract

The COVID19 pandemic had a major impact on emergency medical communication centres (EMCC). A live video facility was made available to second-line physicians in an EMCC with a first-line paramedic to receive emergency calls. The objective of this study was to measure the contribution of live video to remote medical triage. The single-centre retrospective study included all telephone assessments of patients with suspected COVID19 symptoms from 01.04.2020 to 30.04.2021 in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation of the EMCC and the characteristics of patients who called the two emergency lines (official emergency number and COVID19 number) with suspected COVID19 symptoms were described. A prospective web-based survey of physicians was conducted during the same period to measure the indications, limitations and impact of live video on their decisions. 8,957 patients were included. 2,157 (48.0%) of the 4,493 patients assessed on the official emergency number had dyspnoea. 4,045 (90.6%) of 4,464 patients assessed on the COVID19 number had flu-like symptoms. 1,798 (20.1%) patients were reassessed remotely by a physician, including 405 (22.5%) with live video, successfully in 315 (77.8%) attempts. The web-based survey (107 forms) showed that physicians used live video to assess mainly the breathing (81.3%) and general condition (78.5%) of patients. They felt that their decision was modified in 75.7% (n=81) of cases, and caught 7 (7.7%) patients in life-threatening emergency. Medical triage decisions for suspected COVID19 patients are strongly influenced by the use of live video.

Keywords

Dispatch; Emergency Medical Dispatch; Emergency Medical Communication Centre; Video Live; COVID19; Emergency Call; Video triage; Public Safety Answering Point; Telemedecine; Emergency Medical Services; Remote assessment; Triage

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Emergency Medicine

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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