[General practitioners' use of internal medicine e-consultations]

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Informatics
• Primary Care Medicine
• Internal Medicine

Background:

• Traditional phone consultations between general practitioners (GPs) and hospital specialists have limitations for patients unknown to the specialist.
• E-consultation services offer a digital alternative for GPs to seek expert advice from specialists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utilization and impact of an internal medicine e-consultation service for general practitioners.
• To assess the types of clinical queries addressed and the effect on patient referral rates.

Main Methods:

• An observational study was conducted between 2017-2018 at Zuyderland Medical Centre, Netherlands.
• Data collected included patient demographics, GP clinical query content, and specialist responses, including referral advice.
• The study analyzed the usage patterns of 154 regional GPs and 1047 patient cases.

Main Results:

• 88.6% of GPs utilized the e-consultation service, covering all internal medicine specialties.
• 19.6% of patients consulted via e-consultation were referred to the internal medicine out-patient clinic within three months.
• E-consultations led to a 70% reduction in referrals compared to traditional methods.

Conclusions:

• General practitioners widely adopted internal medicine e-consultations for a broad spectrum of clinical questions.
• In over 80% of cases, GPs managed patients independently post-e-consultation, significantly decreasing referral numbers.
• The e-consultation service proved effective in reducing patient referrals and enhancing primary care management.