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- Title
Preliminary Results of Teleconsultations Temporarily Allowed during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
- Authors
Hansang Kim; Hyejin Lee; Choon-Seon Park; Soomin Kim; Sang-A Cho; Seung Mi Yoo; Jee-Ae Kim; Jin Yong Lee
- Abstract
Purpose: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Korea has temporarily expanded coverage of teleconsultation to ensure access to essential health services. As a preliminary study, we investigated service utilization patterns and the characteristics of doctors and patients involved in these temporary teleconsultation services. Materials and Methods: Using national health insurance claims data from February 23, 2020 to June 30, 2020 from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, 228269875 cases were identified. Among them, 567390 cases that received teleconsultation services were included in our study. We performed descriptive analyses according to the types of healthcare institutions. Results: In total, 6193 healthcare institutions provided teleconsultation. Of these, 5466 (88.3%) were clinics. Physicians providing teleconsultations were most likely to be doctors of internal medicine (34.0%) or pediatricians (7.0%) and based in the Seoul Metropolitan area (30.4%). In terms of patients undergoing teleconsultation, the most common major disease categories treated were circulatory system diseases (I00-I99). In a detailed analysis, hypertensive diseases (I10-I15) were the most common diagnoses, with a total of 88726 cases (15.6%), followed by diabetes mellitus at 60298 cases (10.6%). The proportion of Medical Aid recipients receiving teleconsultations was higher (9.5%) than other socioeconomic groups. Among all participants, 356622 cases (84.6%) were from a return visit, and 108838 cases (19.2%) received teleconsultation services without being prescribed drugs. Conclusion: Temporarily allowed teleconsultation services were provided mostly to the following patients: 1) those scheduled for revisitation, 2) those with chronic diseases, and 3) those living in pandemic hotspots.
- Subjects
SOUTH Korea; SEOUL (Korea); COVID-19 pandemic; PHYSICIANS; NATIONAL health insurance; HEALTH insurance claims; MEDICAL care; HYPERTENSIVE crisis
- Publication
Yonsei Medical Journal, 2021, Vol 62, Issue 9, p850
- ISSN
0513-5796
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3349/ymj.2021.62.9.850