Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheuk MW (1)
Affiliation :
(1) B6 ward, Ruttonjee Hospital
Introduction :
During the COVID-19 pandemic, different services have become using technology to replace the traditional way, such as tele-visit replacing face-to-face visit. Checking mask fitting is a routine in Sleep-related Breathing Disorder Nurse Clinic. It is important because inappropriate mask fitting may lead to patient’s discomfort and result in reduced compliance. However, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a kind of aerosol-generating procedures, which may increase the risk of spreading virus in the environment. Therefore, a program on using tele-monitoring for reinforcing mask fitting is designed and initiated.
Objectives :
1.To replace the current practice of checking mask fitting in clinic by assessing video recording of patient wearing CPAP mask
2.To reduce the risk of infection by tele-monitoring.
3.To encourage patient’s compliance of using CPAP therapy.
Methodology :
The program starts with verbal consent for video recording of the procedure of wearing CPAP mask by patients or their caregivers. If they agree for video recording, comments and advices about mask fitting are provided to them during follow-up in clinic. If mask fitting is satisfactory, a routine follow-up is arranged; otherwise, mask fitting is reinforced with a ‘head model’ and those patients are requested to send a follow-up video through WhatsApp for reviewing any improvements of mask fitting. If the mask fitting is still not satisfactory, an early follow-up will be arranged for them. A patient satisfaction survey is used for evaluation.
Result & Outcome :
Totally 82 patient satisfaction surveys have been received. 97% of patients feel satisfied with tele-monitoring in overall. About 95% of them agree tele-monitoring is useful to increase their awareness of mask fitting and is worthy of improving skills of wearing CPAP mask with a low risk of infection. Besides, more than 97% of them think that tele-monitoring is easy to operate and suggestions from nurse are clear and useful. Some additional comments are provided by patients or their caregivers, most of them with the same comment and is showed as below: tele-monitoring is convenient and can relieve the burden for them to bring the whole set of CPAP with accessories to clinic, besides they do not need to disinfect the whole set of CPAP with accessories after finished the follow-up. On the other hand, a patient thinks that it will be much clearer and more practical if he can demonstrate the skills of wearing CPAP mask face-to-face during follow-up. Tele-monitoring is now becoming more mature due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be further used for interval monitoring of patient’s mask fitting in-between two follow-ups.
