AUTHOR=Bouabida Khayreddine , Malas Kathy , Talbot Annie , Desrosiers Marie-Ève , Lavoie Frédéric , Lebouché Bertrand , Taguemout Melissa , Rafie Edmond , Lessard David , Pomey Marie-Pascale 

TITLE=Remote Patient Monitoring Program for COVID-19 Patients Following Hospital Discharge: A Cross-Sectional Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Digital Health

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/digital-health/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2021.721044

DOI=10.3389/fdgth.2021.721044

ISSN=2673-253X

ABSTRACT=Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created an urgent need to act to reduce the spread of the virus and alleviate congestion from healthcare services, protect healthcare providers, and help them maintain satisfactory quality and safety of care. Remote COVID-19 monitoring platforms emerged as potential solutions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the capacity and contribution of two different platforms used to remotely monitor patients with COVID-19 to maintain quality, safety, patient engagement in care, and their acceptability, usefulness, and user-friendliness from the user’s perspective. The first platform is focused on telecare phone calls (Telecare-Covid), and the second is a telemonitoring app (CareSimple-Covid). 
Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study. The data were collected through a phone survey from May to August 2020. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test analysis. Participants' responses and comments on open-ended questions were analyzed using content analysis.
Results: 51 patients participated in the study. 18 participants used the CareSimple-Covid platform and 33 participants used the Telecare-Covid platform. Overall, the satisfaction rate for quality and safety of care for the two platforms was 80%. Over 88% of the users on each platform considered the platforms’ services to be engaging, useful, user-friendly, and appropriate to their needs. Users appreciated four aspects of these platforms: (1) the ease of access to services and the availability of care team members; (2) the user-friendliness of the platforms; (3) the continuity of care provided, and (4) the wide range of services delivered. Users identified some technical limitations and raised certain issues, such as the importance of maintaining human contact, data security, and confidentiality. Improvement suggestions include promoting access to connected devices; enhancing communications between institutions, healthcare users, and the public on confidentiality and personal data protection standards; and integrating a participatory approach to telehealth platform development and deployment efforts.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence that the two remote monitoring platforms were well-received by users.  This type of program could be considered for use in a post-pandemic era and for other post-hospitalization clienteles. To maximize efficiency, the areas for improvement and the issues identified should be addressed with a patient-centered approach.