Abstract
Introduction: Kameda Family Clinic Tateyama (hereafter referred to as "the clinic" ) has been providing antenatal care by family physicians in collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Kameda General Hospital (hereafter referred to as "the main hospital" ) since 2006, but the scope of the program was limited to low-risk pregnant women up to 34 weeks of pregnancy. The program was expanded to include some high-risk pregnant women and full-term pregnant women. We conducted a retrospective study to determine how much the burden of hospital visits by pregnant women was reduced.
Methods: We compared the actual situation of antenatal checkups with that assumed in the management before 2021, and analyzed the reduced number of visits to the main hospital and the total distance of visits to the main hospital.
Results: Twenty-seven pregnant women were included in the study, and the median number of visits to the main hospital was reduced by 3 visits and the median distance of the main hospital visits was reduced by 183.6 km. In the high-risk group, the median number of visits to the main hospital was reduced by 5.5 times, and the median distance of visits was reduced by 257.6 km.
Conclusion: Expansion of antenatal checkups using ICT technology safely reduced the distance of hospital visits for pregnant women.
