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

The Ohio State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cellulitis

Treatments: Other: Routine Care; Other: teledermatology consult

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03036358

2015H0134

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment: 30 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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30 participants in 2 patient groups

Teledermatology consult

Other group

Description:

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, and 30-day remission rate. This arm will undergo imaging, a dermatologic assessment will be performed, AND this assessment will be entered into the patients chart.

Treatment:

Other: teledermatology consult

Routine Care

Other group

Description:

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, and 30-day remission rate. This arm will undergo imaging, a dermatologic assessment will be performed, AND this assessment WILL NOT be entered into the patients chart

Treatment:

Other: Routine Care