Elucidation of the needs for telecritical care services in Japan: a qualitative study

Abstract

Objective To clarify the reasons for consultation, advice sought by frontline physicians and relationship between the patient’s pathology and the type of advice provided to guide the future development of telecritical care services.Design Secondary analysis of transcripts of telephone calls originally recorded for quality control purposes was conducted using a thematic content analysis. The calls were conducted between December 2019 and April 2021 (total cases: 70; total time: ~15 hour).Settings Intensivists provided consultation services to frontline physicians at secondary care institutions in the Kansai and Chubu regions.Participants Non-intensive care frontline physicians working in five secondary care institutions in the Kansai and Chubu regions and intensivists providing a consultation service (n=26).Interventions Not applicable.Primary and secondary outcome measures The main outcome was the themes emerging from the language used during telephone and video consultations, indicating the gap filled by the telecritical care service.Findings We analysed 70 cases and approximately 15 hours of anonymised audio data. We identified the following reasons for consultation: ‘lack of competence in treatment and diagnostic testing’ and ‘lack of access to consultation in their own hospital’. Frontline physicians most often sought advice related to ‘treatment’, followed by ‘patient triage and transfer’, ‘diagnosis’ and ‘diagnostic testing and evaluation’. Regarding the relationship between the patient’s pathology and type of advice provided, the most commonly sought advice by frontline physicians varied based on the patient’s pathology.Conclusion This study explored the characteristics of 70 telecritical sessions and identified the reasons for and nature of the consultations. These findings can be used to guide the future provision and scale up of telecritical services.