Segovia (EFE).- The health system of Castilla y León (Sacyl) is testing a “telepresence” pilot project in Segovia, with which the patient goes to their Health Center and, accompanied by the primary care doctor, is attended by videoconference by the specialist, who is in the Hospital.
The Minister of Health, Alejandro Vázquez, visited the General Hospital of Segovia this Wednesday and explained to the media that the piloting is carried out from the Carbonero El Mayor Health Center, 28 kilometers from the capital, with the Continuity of Care Unit of the hospital.
From the Health Center, the primary care doctor coordinates an appointment with the hospital and, when the time comes, audio and video communication is established between the office, where the patient is accompanied by their doctor or nurse, and the specialist’s office at the hospital.
Accompanied by doctor and nurse
He or she can ask the patient the usual questions, and if he needs to do a scan, blood pressure, or oxygen saturation, the primary care doctor or nurse does it for him.
And the specialist, through the usual computer system, can adjust the medication and make the corresponding changes in the treatment, as well as coordinate any test that must be carried out.
The idea is to export the experience to the rest of the health centers in the province of Segovia and, subsequently, to the entire autonomous community, although the minister did not specify when when asked by journalists: “We will try to do it shortly because I think it is satisfactory for the entire population”, he pointed out.
Vázquez explained that the Internal Medicine Continuity Care Unit is the right one for implementation because the patients are usually elderly people with various chronic pathologies, with whom work is done to avoid decompensation.
Points of Continuous Attention
The next step will be to connect the Continuing Care Points of the community, which are “very far from the hospital”, with the emergency services of the center to “avoid transfers of the patient to the emergency service that they do not need”.
Although the pilot project has not yet been running for a long time – it has treated some fifteen patients since September last year – the result has been “satisfactory” for both professionals and patients, according to the counselor.
The technical means necessary to carry it out consist of a camera, a screen and a high-resolution sound system: “It allows an image quality that even the patient’s lesions can be seen perfectly, since the camera’s ability to focus is well”, explained the counselor.
“Satisfactory” results
He has reported that this same modality of “telepresence” has been applied in Zamora for the control of patients who remain in residences of the Junta de Castilla y León, specifically in the town of Benavente, with also “satisfactory” results.
Vázquez has highlighted the advantages of this consultation system for primary care professionals because “it involves them much more in their work”: “They do not release the patient and go to the hospital, they continue to participate directly in the process and evolution” , has underlined.
But for him, the “maximum importance” lies in the benefits it brings to patients, since on many occasions they are elderly people and, due to the difficulties that often exist in transportation, it is convenient to avoid moving “if it is not strictly necessary”. EFE