Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 29, 2020
Date Accepted: Jul 23, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jul 27, 2020
The Internet Hospital plus Drug Delivery for Health Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pilot Evaluation in South China.
ABSTRACT
Background:
The widely access of internet has boosted the emergence of online hospitals. A new service mode to outpatient called internet hospital plus drug delivery(IHDD) has been developed in China, but too little are known about this platform.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics, acceptance and initial effects of IHDD during the outbreak of COVID-19 in a tertiary hospital of south China.
Methods:
The total amount of online prescription and detail information during the first two work resumption months were obtained. The patients’ gender, age, residence, departments, time of prescription, payment, drug delivery region were included in the analysis.
Results:
A total of 1380 prescriptions were made between March 2nd and April 20th, 2020. The largest group of patients were the middle-age ones(49.3%), followed by the youth(41.5%). 39.4% of the patients chose to get the medicine by self-pick up, while 60.6% of the patients preferred to get their medicine by drug delivery service. The top five online prescription departments were infectious diseases (41.4%) , nephrology (19.1%), endocrinology (10.5%), angiocardiopathy(7.8%) and neurology(3%). For the 836 delivered prescriptions, 440(52.6%) were sent to the Guangdong province ( including 363 to Shenzhen), 396(47.4%) were sent to other provinces in China.
Conclusions:
The IHDD mode has been proved to be efficient and convenient for various types of patients during the crisis. Although offline visit are essential when the patients are in severe conditions, IHDD can help to relieve pressure on hospitals by reduce the mild case flow rate. Further effort need to be made to improve the quality and acceptance of IHDD, as well as regulations to standardize the management of this novel mode.
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