Monitoring of COVID-19 patients by telemedicine with telemonitoring

Aim: To asses if telemedicine with telemonitoring is a clinically useful and secure tool in the tracking of patients with COVID-19. Methods: A prospective observational study of patients with COVID-19 diagnosis by positive PCR considered high-risk tracked with telemedicine and telemonitoring was conducted in the sanitary area of Lugo between March 17th and April 17th, 2020. Two groups of patients were included: Outpatient Tracing from the beginning and after discharge. Every patient sent a daily clinical questionnaire with temperature and oxygen saturation 3 times a day. Proactive monitoring was done by getting in touch with every patient at least 11 a day. Results: 313 patients (52.4% female) with a total average age of 60.9 (DE 15.9) years were included. Additionally, 2 patients refused to join the program. Since the beginning, 224 were traced outpatient and 89 after being discharged. Among the first category, 38 (16.90%) were referred to Emergency department on 43 occasions; 18 were hospitalized (8.03%), and 2 deceased. Neither deaths nor a matter of vital emergency occurred at home. When including patients after admissions monitoring was done in 304 cases. One patient re-entered (0.32%) to the hospital, and another one left the program (0.32%). The average time of monitoring was 11.64 (SD 3.58) days, and 224 (73.68%) patients were discharged during the 30 days of study. Conclusions: Our study suggests that telemedicine with home telemonitoring, used proactively, allows for monitoring high-risk patients with COVID-19 in a clinically useful and secure way. (C) 2020 Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. and Sociedad Espanola de Medicina Interna (SEMI). All rights reserved.