Telehealth program for symptomatic COVID-19 patients in Mindanao, Philippines: a whole-of-system, pragmatic interventional study on patient monitoring from isolation facilities to community reintegration
Punzalan, Jaime Kristoffer, Guingona, Monserrat, Gregorio, Elgie, Ferraren, Jhufel, Mark, Mark Anthony, Valaquio, Marvin, Arnuco, Floro Dave, Punzalan, Mary Germeyn, Arciaga, Rosemarie, Woolley, Torres, Kunting, Afdal, Miravite, Dulce Amor, and Cristobal, Fortunato (2024) Telehealth program for symptomatic COVID-19 patients in Mindanao, Philippines: a whole-of-system, pragmatic interventional study on patient monitoring from isolation facilities to community reintegration. International Journal for Equity in Health, 23. 20.
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting individuals and society's physical and mental health. Despite the lack of any definite and effective therapeutic regimen, public health measures such as quarantine and isolation have been instituted to contain this pandemic. However, these mitigating measures have also raised issues regarding isolated patients' mental and psychological well-being. Several stakeholders were engaged in this approach, including the university, the local health office, the tertiary hospital, and the local communities. This intervention addresses concerns regarding the health status of isolated individuals due to COVID-19 infection, making the program available to anyone who agrees to participate. This was done through telehealth services delivered via phone calls and SMS. The university provided technical support and telehealth manpower through medical students. The local health unit manages the isolation facilities, while the referral hospital offers specialty care for isolated patients through teleconsultation. Finally, the local community is the one that reintegrates discharged patients into their communities. Three hundred forty-four (344) participants were provided seven sessions on telehealth education and tracking of their COVID-19 prescribed practices and mental health. The mean age of the patients was 37 years; half were females, and 15% had comorbidities. Regarding their mental health status, the level of depression dropped from 6% to 1% (p<0.0001), the level of anxiety dropped from 12% to 2% (p<0.0001), and the level of stress dropped from 3% to 0% (p<0.0001) from the first day of admission to 2 weeks after discharge. Moreover, a general trend of statistically significant increase in various practices was noted: wearing face masks, physical distancing, disinfecting frequently held objects, hand hygiene, and self-monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms. Those with progressing symptoms of COVID-19 were referred immediately to the referral hospital. There were also no reports of complications of co-morbidities during their stay in the isolation facilities or social isolation upon community reintegration. The study concludes that telehealth services have the potential to address many challenges in providing continuous healthcare services to isolated patients until they are reintegrated into their community. Furthermore, a whole-of-society approach is necessary to provide holistic care to patients affected by the pandemic.
Item ID: | 81983 |
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Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 1475-9276 |
Keywords: | COVID-19, Mental health, Preventive practices, Telehealth program, Whole-of-society approach |
Copyright Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. |
Date Deposited: | 20 Feb 2024 01:40 |
FoR Codes: | 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420699 Public health not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200406 Health protection and disaster response @ 100% |
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