Resumen

FALABELLA, Lic. Soledad; JALUFF, Lic. María Belén; MARTINEZ, Dr. Daniel  y  SANGUINETTI, Dr. José María. Telemedicine: phone monitoring experience upon Home Enteral Nutrition during COVID-19 Pandemic. Diaeta [online]. 2020, vol.38, n.173, pp.49-55. ISSN 1852-7337.

Introduction. telemedicine guarantees health care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: to evaluate telemedicine for monitoring patients with home enteral nutrition.

Materials and methods: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study, with intentional non-probability sampling, was conducted between January and June, 2020. The patients included were the ones with difficulty to have access to home care by professionals face-to-face. All the patients had health insurance, a home emergency service and a referral center. Patients who necessarily needed face-to-face follow-up, impossibility of communication with a family member in charge, and refusal of the patient / family to the remote modality were excluded. Variables: age, gender, diagnosis, subjective global assessment (SGA) in the different communications with the patient, adherence to nutritional indication, patient satisfaction and complications. A telephone satisfaction survey was conducted. Complications were classified as related and unrelated to home enteral nutritional support (SNED).

Results: 18 patients with various medical diagnoses were included. 80 communications were made with a total of 2370 days of follow-up (131.7 ± 63.7 days / patient). SGA (n = 80): 33.75% (n = 27) were well nourished, 58.75% (n = 47) at risk of malnutrition, and 7.5% (n = 6) had severe malnutrition. 97.5% (n = 78) complied 100% with the nutritional prescription and 2.5% (n = 2) respected it by 50%. At the end of the study, all were able to fulfil it. 15 adverse events were observed: 8 related to SNED and 7 unrelated. Two patients died during follow-up due to their underlying pathology. Satisfaction: 72.22% (n = 13) defined general care as very good, and 27.78% (n = 5) as excellent. In relation to professional care, it was found that 22.22% (n = 4) categorized it as excellent, 66.67% (n = 12) very good and 11.11% (n = 2) good.

Conclusion: Telemedicine is useful to monitor the SNED, allowing to reduce geographic inequity and improve accessibility to health care.

Palabras clave : telemedicine; nutritional telecare; nutritional support; covid-19..

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