Introduction:

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the restructuring of health services around the world. Teleconsultation offers access to remote health care and a mitigation strategy.

Purpose:

Describe the results of a teleconsultation program in a transplant center at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology:

Descriptive cross-sectional study describing the experience of the use of teleconsultation during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic at an organ transplant center in Colombia. The information was obtained by directly collecting the total number of patients treated during April 2020 and by sending a structured electronic questionnaire to the patients involved in the care.

Results:

A total of 1139 renal transplant patients were assessed by teleconsultation. The geographical distribution of patients in metropolitan areas and outside the metropolitan area were similar (n=575 and n=564, respectively). Of the total, 292 patients responded to the survey sent with an average age of 48 years. The patients had high satisfaction with the teleconsultation model (n=278, 94%). There were 2 suspected cases of COVID-19, which were negative when performing the PCR-RT test.

Conclusions:

Teleconsultation is a useful tool in the mitigation of the health emergency, with a high potential, which generates greater access and health care opportunity, presenting high acceptance rates.

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