Introduction:

in this study, we describe our experience with an email consultation service in a primary care centre in Aragon (Spain) over a 5-year period. We evaluated the economic impact of the service, user satisfaction and use of the service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method:

in the first in-person appointment with the parents, we offered the use of email consultation with the paediatrician or nurse for non-urgent concerns. We provided directions. Two years after introducing the service, we performed a user satisfaction survey to evaluate the use of the service. At 3 years, we analysed the number of email consultations and the time and resources that they saved. Lastly, we assessed the use of the service during the lockdown imposed in the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

Results:

the use of email consultations increased in the early months and remained stable thereafter. During the pandemic, the use of the service was massive. Parents reported high satisfaction with the service, and even requested that it be extended to other clinics in the primary care centre. As for the economic impact, we estimated annual savings of €37 271.5 based on the time the paediatrician needed to spend on responding by email compared to in person. But when we estimated the number of visits that would have been made if the email service was not available, we found it did not result in a decrease in in-person visits, perhaps due to the increased accessibility achieved with the service. Still, its use during the pandemic was essential to maintain confinement measures.

Conclusions:

the email consultation service in paediatrics was perceived positively and achieved significant reductions in health care costs. The service has been very useful during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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