Effect of Teledermatology on Length of Hospital Admission, Length of Stay, 30 Day Readmission Rate, and Antibiotic Use in Patients Presenting With Cellulitis vs Pseudocellulitis in an Academic ED Setting

Cellulitis Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Effect of Teledermatology on Length of Hospital Admission, Length of Stay, 30 Day Readmission Rate, and Antibiotic Use in Patients Presenting With Cellulitis vs Pseudocellulitis in an Academic Emergency Department Setting.

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03036358
• Other study ID #: 2015H0134
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: June 4, 2016
• Last updated: April 3, 2018
• Start date: January 2016
• Est. completion date: January 2018

Study information

• Verified date: April 2018
• Source: Ohio State University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The effect of teledermatology on length of hospital admission, length of stay, 30 day readmission rate, and antibiotic use in patients presenting with cellulitis vs pseudocellulitis in an academic emergency department setting.

Description:

The Investigator hope to determine if the implementation of teledermatology in the emergency department (ED) at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is beneficial in diagnosing cases of cellulitis and pseudocellulitis conditions. Prior studies have indicated that misdiagnosis may occur in up to 28% of patients in the ED with these conditions. Additionally, dermatological consults have been shown to change diagnosis or management of these conditions in more than 60% of the patients examined. Without the use of teledermatology, however, a dermatological consult would be prohibitively expensive and take time to obtain. The investigator proposes that by utilizing teledermatology in emergency rooms, the investigator can make faster, yet just as accurate, dermatological diagnoses in patients presenting with cellulitis-like symptoms. Subsequently, by reducing the number of misdiagnoses, unnecessary use of antibiotics and hospitalizations will also decrease, lowering health care costs and simultaneously providing patients with faster treatment of the actual dermatologic condition.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 30
• Est. completion date: January 2018
• Est. primary completion date: January 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Over 18

• Present to the ED with cellulitis-like symptoms, including but not limited to the following: tenderness, redness, swelling, expansive lesion

Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnant

• prisoner

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Cellulitis

Intervention

Other:
• teledermatology consult
Information from the dermatologic assessment will be entered into the patients chart.
• Routine Care
The dermatologic assessment will occur but not added to the patients medical record. Dermatology may still be consulted but will be at the prerogative of the treating hospitalist.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center	Columbus	Ohio

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Ohio State University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Admission to the hospital	To determine the benefit of teledermatology to differentiate cellulitis from pseudocellulitis in emergency departments through the analysis of time spent in the emergency department (ED), admission to the inpatient hospital, antibiotic use, time to improvement, We anticipate a high rate of pseudocellulitis, and this aim will determine if there is a difference in patient admissions among those who receive a dermatologic assessment	30 days
Secondary	Length of stay in the hospital	Will assess time spent in the hospital for those that were admitted	30 days post admission
Secondary	30 day readmission rate	Will assess hospitalization/emergency department readmission in the following 30 days	30 days post admission
Secondary	Antibiotic use	Will assess the frequency of antibiotic use between groups	30 days post admission