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Postpartum Care in the Time of COVID-19: The Use of Telemedicine for Postpartum Care.
- Source :
-
Telemedicine & e-Health . Feb2023, Vol. 29 Issue 2, p235-241. 7p. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Background: Telemedicine was implemented at our institution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data do not currently exist about the use of telemedicine in providing comprehensive postpartum care. Objective: This project aimed to evaluate the impact of telemedicine on postpartum care at an urban Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Study Design: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients who delivered at an urban hospital in New York between September and November 2019 (pre-COVID), February through April 2020 (peak-COVID) and June through August 2020 (ongoing-COVID). The primary outcome was postpartum visit attendance. Secondary outcomes included contraception use, breastfeeding, depression screening, hospital readmission, and emergency department visit rates. Log-binomial regression models were used to estimate relative risk. Results: Telemedicine accounted for 1% of postpartum visits in the pre-COVID cohort, 60% in the peak-COVID cohort, and 48% in the ongoing-COVID cohort. Postpartum visit attendance rates were 52% in the pre-COVID cohort, 43% in the peak-COVID cohort, and 56% in the ongoing-COVID cohort (p > 0.05). There was a nonsignificant increase in postpartum visit show rate for telemedicine visits compared to in-person visits in the peak-COVID cohort (76% vs. 65%; relative risk [RR] 1.17 [0.87–1.57]) and ongoing-COVID cohort (85% vs. 74%; RR 1.16 [0.90–1.50]). Patients were significantly less likely to have a Patient Health Questionnaire-2 Depression screen in the peak-COVID and ongoing-COVID cohorts (22% and 33%) than in the pre-COVID cohort (74%) (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences in hospital readmissions, contraceptive use or breastfeeding rates across cohorts (p > 0.05). Conclusions: At our urban FQHC, telemedicine was comparable to in-person postpartum care in terms of attendance rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, without an increase in rates of hospital visits or readmissions. However, postpartum depression screening needs to be better integrated into the telemedicine visit type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 15305627
- Volume :
- 29
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Telemedicine & e-Health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 161742838
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2022.0065