Telesurveillance for the health of elderly patients during the Covid-19 pandemic: a health care assessment satisfaction

Abstract

Introduction: In the pandemic scenario of the new coronavirus, the use of technological tools by health professionals was essential and contributed greatly to the assistance of the vulnerable public. In order to avoid the exposure of the elderly person to the coronavirus and monitor them regarding their health status, a telemonitoring project was developed. Objective: This research aimed at evaluating the satisfaction of the elderly monitored by the telesurveillance service during the covid-19 pandemic in the city of Natal/RN. Methodology: This is a descriptive study, with a sample of 719 elderly people evaluated, considering an average of 35 elderly people per basic health unit, among the 21 basic units linked to the project, from November 25, 2020 to December 10, 2020. Results: Among the 376 elderly participants, most were female (238), with an average age of 69 years. The participants considered the access to information about covid-19 (336), care guidance (340), reception (338) satisfactory. As for satisfaction, (253) the participants also considered telemonitoring responsible for bringing the elderly closer to health units. Conclusions: The telesurveilance allowed a greater monitoring and accessibility to the elderly during the covid-19 pandemic, as well as a minority were still being monitored in a presential way. 

Keywords: Telemonitoring; Covid-19; Comprehensive Health Care for the Elderly; Primary Health Care; Unified Health System; Descriptive Epidemiology.