Patient Experiences With a Remote Monitoring Pathway for COVID-19.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Public Health
• Infectious Disease Management

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated innovative healthcare delivery models.
• A remote monitoring pathway was established at Michael Garron Hospital for home-based management of COVID-19 patients.
• The pathway aimed to reduce hospital burden and ensure patient safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate patient experiences with the COVID-19 remote monitoring pathway.
• To assess the pathway's effectiveness in preventing unnecessary emergency department (ED) visits.
• To determine the pathway's accuracy in detecting severe COVID-19 infections.

Main Methods:

• 35 semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with patients on the remote monitoring pathway.
• Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic coding after establishing inter-rater reliability.
• A systematic approach was used to code transcripts and identify key themes.

Main Results:

• 80% of patients reported a positive experience with the remote monitoring pathway.
• The pathway successfully reassured 22.9% of patients with mild-moderate symptoms, preventing ED visits.
• The pathway correctly identified severe COVID-19 in 8.6% of patients, prompting hospital presentation.
• In 8.6% of cases, remote monitoring failed to detect severe illness; 2.9% were incorrectly flagged for severe symptoms.

Conclusions:

• Remote monitoring is a valuable tool for optimizing healthcare resources during pandemics.
• The pathway effectively reduced emergency department visits and minimized virus exposure.
• Patient experiences were largely positive, but improvements in detecting severe infections are warranted.