Impact in the Medical Care Among the Rheumatic Diseases Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in México During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Impact in the Medical Care Among the Rheumatic Diseases Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in México During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition is a national reference center for rheumatic diseases that belongs to The National Institutes of Health, and has Federal founding. More than 8,000 patients with a wide variety of rheumatologic diagnosis receive medical care.
On March 2020, the WHO announced COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. The first case was registered in Mexico on February 2020. In March 2020, the Mexican Government requested that our Institution should restrict health care to exclusively COVID-19 patients; accordingly, outpatient consultations were, and up to August 2020 still, hold on.
Meanwhile, when possible, the Department of Immunology and Rheumatology has implemented an "on-demand", non-organized patient´s health care, through email and phone contact; nonetheless, and due to the middle-low socioeconomic status of most of our patients and limited technical resources available at our Institution, the attempt has been challenging.
The aim objective of this project is to explore patients perception about access to medical care and to medications, access to communication with their primary rheumatologist and patients risk perception about COVID-19 disease, for this a survey directed (questionnaire locally developed) will apply and to explore how the reintegration at the usual medical care has a positive impact in the patient´s disease activity, patient´s quality of life and psychopathology (depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress).
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria: