BACKGROUND
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) pandemic (COVID-19) has brought many challenges to healthcare organizations worldwide, placing a great deal of strain on the healthcare system. One of the main challenges is access to health care. A digital platform in the form of a community call center with a hotline number (16000) was initially established in Qatar to provide digital consultations, and the latter was expanded to include a vaccination hotline number (7077) for mass immunization.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to examine community call center operations and document their roles during the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study design was used in this study. Data were collected retrospectively from March 29th, 2020, to January 27th, 2022, from an established database of the Primary Healthcare Corporation, Qatar (PHCC), Health Information and Technology Department. First, data received over a hotline number (16000) were analyzed for the volume of telephone calls, video calls, percentage of calls answered and abandoned, and categories of calls received. Then, the data for the vaccination hotline number (7077) were analyzed for the volume of calls received, percentage of calls answered and abandoned, and number of appointments booked, confirmed, rescheduled, or cancelled.
RESULTS
Hotline number (16000) received 429212 calls, of which 284849 (66.37%) were answered, 95.84% were related to general medicine, and 4.09% for dental services. The average number of calls per day was 640.61, and the average number of calls answered per day was 425.14. Of the total consultations conducted 128468, 3810 (2.96 %) were for video consultations. Among the categories of calls consulted the highest number of calls was related to diabetes mellitus-7.45%, followed by prescriptions/medications-5.59%, which was then followed by hypertension-4.60%, vitamin d related-4.47%, upper respiratory tract infection-3.19%, and COVID-19 related- 3.07% among several other problems/diagnoses. For the vaccination hotline, total calls received were 1512354, and 881305 (58.27%) were answered. The average number of calls per day was 4990.17, the average number of calls answered per day was 2907.61. Appointments booked for vaccination were 26.37%, confirmed 10.24%, rescheduled 7.95%, and 1.60% of appointments were cancelled.
CONCLUSIONS
The community call center in Qatar has served both COVID and non-COVID cases during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, providing patients with an alternative digital platform for consultation. It has also played a major role in mass immunization in Qatar. The services of the community call center can be expanded further to meet the upcoming healthcare challenge during the FIFA World Cup when 1.7 million spectators are anticipated to arrive. AI-based predictive analytics can be applied for demand forecasting and strategic planning.