633 - Parental perception of Telemedicine when visiting the Pediatric Emergency Department
Monday, May 1, 2023
9:30 AM – 11:30 AM ET
Poster Number: 633 Publication Number: 633.455
Maciej Sadowski, John R. Oishei Children's Hospital, Buffalo, NY, United States; Jeremy Killion, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States; Brian Wrotniak, John R. Oishei Children's Hospital, Buffalo, NY, United States; haiping Qiao, UBMD Pediatrics, Buffalo, NY, United States
Fellow John R. Oishei Children's Hospital Buffalo, New York, United States
Background: COVID resulted in significant deaths in adults compared to pediatric population. Children were not spared as there were delayed cancer diagnosis, increased severity of diabetic ketoacidosis presentation, missed well child visits and poor dental screening as examples. This has been due to a result of office closures and parental fear of contracting Covid by leaving home. In response healthcare rapidly adapted Telemedicine use across specialties, but Pediatric Emergency Departments (PED) were often slower to follow. A Telemedicine platform was quickly implemented within our own health system, in first 2 months of 2002, but its utilization by pediatric patients was low especially in PED. This trend was conflicting in our view and needed further exploration by asking parents why they were visiting the ED instead of using Telemedicine from the safety of their home. Objective: To identify previous parental utilization and barriers to employing Telemedicine for pediatric patients presenting to a PED. Areas of investigation included technology literacy, satisfaction from usage and user demographics when surveyed about Telemedicine. Design/Methods: This was a survey descriptive research study that gathered information from parents of a pediatric in the PED visiting for low acuity problem. It was facilitated via RedCap and research assistants were employed in collecting data in real time from April-August of 2021. Results: There were 635 completed surveys at Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. It has produced almost even division between parents that have (47.3%) and have not (52.7%) used telemedicine. The average age of parents was 31 years old and children coming with them to PED were younger than 11 years old. Overall technology literacy did not pose an issue with access also, almost all the patient presenting to PED had a pediatrician. Parents using telemedicine were very happy with it especially with no need to travel as they lived far from the hospital and their concerns were thoroughly addresses. Parents who were not using Telemedicine had no knowledge of its availability, access to high-speed interned was not a problem and they expressed interest in Telemedicine. Most of them lived close to the hospital with increased utilization of PED. Privacy of these visits was not the concern for parents not using telemedicine.
Conclusion(s): Telemedicine is a useful tool for medical care of children. Parents who do use it are very happy with the results and others have no knowledge of its existence. There is a need for more education and explanation about Telemedicine to gain acceptance and usage in the community.
