Using Telemedicine to Optimize Teamwork and Infection Control of Critical and Highly-infectious Patients in an Emergency Department

Completed

• Conditions: Infections, Respiratory; Emergency Service, Hospital; Critical Illness; Telemedicine
• Interventions: Other: telemedicine; Other: traditional communication tools

• Registration Number: NCT04591873
• Lead Sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital

Brief Summary

Since 2000, various emerging infectious diseases have repeatedly caused serious impact on the health of the global population and the healthcare systems. With the growing international transportation and improving accessibility of the healthcare systems, hospitals have been inevitably the first sentinels dealing with emerging infectious diseases. The biological disasters, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korean in 2015, and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak this year, challenged our vulnerable healthcare systems and caused great loss of lives.

Regarding the ongoing global epidemics and possible community outbreaks of the COVID-19, the management of biological disasters for an overcrowded emergency department should be planned. In the early 2020, the emergency department used a double-triage and telemedicine method to treat non-critical patient with suspected COVID-19. This application reduced the exposure time of the first responders and reserve adequate interview quality. However, for the critical patients treated in the isolated resuscitation rooms, the unique environment limited the teamwork and communication for the resuscitation team. These factors might led to poorer quality of critical care.

The investigators designed a telemedicine-teamwork model, which connected the isolation room, prepare room and nursing station by an video-conferencing system in the emergency department. This model try to break the barriers of space between the rooms and facilitate the teamwork communications between each unit. Besides, by providing a more efficient workflow, this model could lower the total exposure time for all workers in the contaminated area. This study was conducted to evaluate the benefits of the telemedicine-teamwork model and provide a practical, safe and effective alternative to critical care of the patients with suspected highly infectious diseases.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2020-09-23
• Status Verified: 2020-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-10-12
• Study First Posted: 2020-10-19
• Study Start: 2021-02-03
• Primary Completion: 2021-07-31
• Study Completion: 2021-07-31
• Last Update Submitted: 2023-05-15
• Last Update Posted: 2023-05-17

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 74

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

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Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

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Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Critical patients in the emergency department	telemedicine	-
Critical patients in the emergency department	traditional communication tools	-

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
time to complete intubation	immediately after intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
teamwork score	immediately after intervention	Team Emergency Assessment Measure, minimal score is 0 and the maximal score is 4. Higher score means a better outcome.
exposure time in isolation rooms	immediately after intervention

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

National Taiwan University Hospital; 🇨🇳 Taipei, Taiwan