Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2020 | COVID-19 | Brief Report
Confronting hidden COVID-19 burden: a telemedical solution for elective urological outpatient clinics
Authors:
Thilo Westhofen, Giuseppe Magistro, Simon Lennartz, Jozefina Casuscelli, Christian Stief, Severin Rodler
Published in:
Infection
|
Issue 6/2020
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Abstract
Maintaining high-quality care for urological patients is a challenge during and after the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We observe an increasing volume of postponed elective visits at our tertiary care hospital, holding the risk for deterioration of non-emergency disease conditions. As it is unclear for how long the pandemic will last, we propose to implement telehealth as a solution to provide regular symptom monitoring compatible with social distancing guidelines during the pandemic and beyond. Telemedical assessment and prioritizing of high-risk patients for individual consults at outpatient services will have to be aligned with available outpatient capacity and local outbreak severity.