Mobile health teleconsultation and telemedicine in operating outpatient departments during COVID-19 pandemic at a hospital in Eastern Nepal

Pramendra Prasad Gupta; Narendra Bhatta; Rakesh Kumar Das; Anish Bhattarai; Deependra Prasad Sarraf; Antoine Geissbuhler

doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_980_24

Mobile health teleconsultation and telemedicine in operating outpatient departments during COVID-19 pandemic at a hospital in Eastern Nepal

J Family Med Prim Care. 2024 Nov;13(11):5282-5285. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_980_24. Epub 2024 Nov 18.

Authors

Pramendra Prasad Gupta¹, Narendra Bhatta², Rakesh Kumar Das³, Anish Bhattarai³, Deependra Prasad Sarraf⁴, Antoine Geissbuhler⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Practice and Emergency Medicine, Medical Coordinator, eHealth and Telemedicine Program, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal.
² Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Focal Person, eHealth and Telemedicine Program, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal.
³ eHealth and Telemedicine Program Unit, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal.
⁴ Department of Clinical Pharmacology, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal.
⁵ Department of Medical Informatics, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstract

Background: Telemedicine provides a means to deliver healthcare across distances, enhancing efficiency and accessibility, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted its importance by reducing the risk of virus transmission while maintaining healthcare delivery. This study evaluates the telemedicine program implemented at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), Nepal, which provided specialist services to remote districts via teleconsultation during the 2020 lockdown. The objectives were to identify the number of patients, the major complaints, and the follow-up departments during teleconsultation.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on teleconsultation data from March 1 to August 31, 2020, across various outpatient departments at BPKIHS. Data from 10,901 patients were reviewed, with variables including age, gender, residence, and consultation medium. Descriptive statistics were calculated using SPSS (version 22).

Results: Most of the patients (55.46%) were female, and the majority (30.84%) aged 21-30 years. Most consultations were from the Sunsari district (54.8%) and Koshi state (88.9%). Voice calls were the primary medium (39.62%), followed by WhatsApp video calls (30.08%). Obstetrics and gynecology had the highest consultation rate (16.15%), followed by dermatology (14.4%) and psychiatry (10.37%). Nearly half of the patients (45.0%) had follow-up consultations, primarily for dermatological issues (17.85%).

Conclusion: The findings underscore telemedicine's role in facilitating healthcare access, particularly for women and residents of remote areas, by reducing travel and exposure risks. This study highlights the need for further integration of telehealth technologies to enhance healthcare delivery, suggesting that teleconsultation can efficiently meet healthcare demands in resource-limited settings during and beyond pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Nepal; low- and middle-income countries; outpatient; resource-limited settings; teleconsultation.