Internet Tools and Emergency Attendance

Impact of "Internet Tools" Consultation on Increasing Emergency Attendance

Over the years, there has been an increase in the flow of emergency rooms, which is gradually leading to an overcrowding of emergency unit. This overcrowding is multifactorial with, for example, a decrease in the outpatient care in family medicine and specialized medicine, emergency services unsuitable at the level of premises ... In parallel, investigator note in recent years facilitated access to internet and especially to GAFA which is the acronym for Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple. As a result, patients have 24-hour access to medical information via websites, blogs and social networks. This information of, often, unreliable medical information can lead to ambiguity among patients about the need for urgent or delayed intervention in the management of their symptoms. In fact, "everything becomes urgent". To date, in France, no study has evaluated the impact and prevalence of consulting a website for medical purposes before consulting an emergency service. The objective of this research will be to assess, in patients presenting in an emergency department, the prior consultation of medical information on a website, the impact on the emergency consultation decision and the relevance of this consultation.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Emergency
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: emergency

Detailed Description

It is an observational study, monocentric, prospective. This study consists in collecting data from an anonymized questioner given to patients presenting themselves at the emergency department of Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital. Answers to the questions will not change the patient's management. The questioner, containing 17 questions, requires answering "yes" or "no" by ticking boxes, or even specify when it is stipulated. This questionnaire will be given to the patient after his registration, and filled by the latter in the waiting room, pending medical care. Answering the questionnaire will take between 5 to 10 minutes. The data is anonymous.

The patient arrives at the emergency department and registers at the entrance desks where a paper and computer file is created. Then, the Reception and Orientation Nurse takes care of the patient by welcoming him in the reception box, she realizes the taking of the hemodynamics constants, the collection of the reason of consultation with the grievances of the patient. During this phase, patient will be inform of the completion of this study and asked to participate in this study. If the patient agrees to participate, an anonymized questioner will be provided and explained by one of the investigating physicians or associated partners.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 431

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Clermont-Ferrand, France, 63003
    • Recruiting
    • Chu Clermont-Ferrand
    • Principal Investigator: Fares Moustafa

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Any major patient presenting to the emergency department by their personal way.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Any major patient presenting to the emergency department by their personal way.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Suspicion of acute alcoholism
• dementia
• guardianship / trusteeship
• language barrier, non-communicating patient
• patient refusing to participate in the study
• patient with confusion
• patient with Glasgow scale less than 15
• patient not affiliated with social security
• patient not knowing how to read or write.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Cohort
• Time Perspectives: Prospective

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
patient in emergency department	Other: emergency; The objective of this research will be to assess, in patients presenting in an emergency department, the prior consultation of medical information on a website, the impact on the emergency consultation decision and the relevance of this consultation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of justified nature of the consultation between patient who did consult a website before the emergency room and those who didn't.	The comparison between the justification (or not) of the transition to adult emergencies and the consultation of an upstream website will be done using the Chi2 test (or Fisher's exact test if applicable). The search for criteria related to the justified nature of this emergency procedure will be done with the Chi2 test (or Fisher's exact test if applicable) for the categorical data and with the Student's test (or Mann and Whitney test if not normally distributed) for continuous data.	at day 1

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Prevalence of Internet consultation among patients admitted to emergency room	The rate of consultation of a website before the emergency room, will be expressed as a percentage with its 95% confidence interval	at day 1
The rate of justified consultation	The rate of justified consultation to emergency department, will be expressed as a percentage with its 95% confidence interval.	at day 1
Risk factors related to consultation of a website medical information prior to the transition to adult emergencies.	The comparison between patients who visited a medical information website (vs those who did not consult the internet) before the emergency department visit will be done using the same methods as for the analysis of the main criterion.	at day 1

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Fares MOUSTAFA, University Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 21, 2019
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2020
• Study Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 7, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 18, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): March 20, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 21, 2019
• Last Verified: March 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Disease Attributes; Emergencies
• Other Study ID Numbers: CHU-431; 2019 / CE 06 (Other Identifier: 2019 / CE 06)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No