Role of Telemedicine in Pace of Consultation and Physicians' Satisfaction in Thoracic Surgery ICU.
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Background Despite various applications of tele ICU there are still many questions about its costs and advantages in ICU Some of its advantages are accelerating consultations and bringing physicians satisfaction from tele consultation outcomes The aim of this study is to discuss these advantages Materials and Methods Initially a telemedicine network was implemented and in the case of having no related specialist the physicians used telemedicine network to perform specialized tele consultation to thoracic surgery ICU patients ICU patient s documents during a year before tele consultation were studied and delay time in consultation was recorded and compared between the two phases Finally the physicians satisfaction with tele consultation was evaluated Results Fifty eight tele consultations in various medical fields were carried out of which 27 were neurology cases From the time of receiving a consultation request to its performance the mean time was 1 3 days in tele consultation Tele consultations were given 2 5 times faster than face to face method In evaluation of physicians satisfaction 82 75 of them were fully satisfied from tele consultation 12 06 were partly satisfied and 5 17 were not satisfied Conclusion Since the length of hospitalization in ICU is crucial due to heavy costs of treatment high risk of contamination and limited beds performing timely consultation is a key factor in reducing hospitalization period Tele consultation in thoracic surgery ICU not only accelerates patient care but also results in higher physician satisfaction