Teleconsultation at primary health care in north of Minas Gerais: scenario and factors associated with its non-utilization by physicians

• Autor(a) principal: Damasceno, Renata Fiúza
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Caldeira, Antônio Prates
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: RECIIS (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.reciis.icict.fiocruz.br/index.php/reciis/article/view/1312
• topic: Telemedicine; Primary health care; Health manager; Motivation strategies; Structural barriers.; Telemedicina; Atención primaria a la salud; Gestor de salud; Estrategias de motivación; Barreras estructurales.; Telemedicina; Atenção primária à saúde; Gestor de saúde; Estratégias de motivação; Barreiras estruturais.

This paper aims to describe the scenario and to identify factors associated with non-use of teleconsultation by primary care physicians in the macrorregião Norte de Minas Gerais (Northern macroregion of Minas Gerais), Brazil. This study is a cross-sectional one. For data collection, a self-administered questionnaire was fill in by the health managers working in all the municipalities of that macroregion; it was previously tested through some of those professionals. The Poisson regression with robust variance was used after bivariate analyzes to identify factors associated with non-use of teleconsultation.To participate in the study 86 municipal health managers were invited. Important structural barriers to teleconsultation implementation were identified: lack of computers with access to internet in basic health units (76.7%) and poor internet connection quality (16.3%). After multiple analysis, only the lack of motivation strategies by the health managers was associated (p<0.007; PR=2.19; IC95%:1.24-3.86) with non-use of teleconsultation by physicians. The results reinforce the role played by the health manager in promoting the use of teleconsultation service in primary care.