doi:10.3390/healthcare9111548engBaena-Díez, J.M.Gonzalez-Casafont, I.Cordeiro-Coelho, S.Fernández-González, S.Rodríguez-Jorge, M.Fernández Pérez-Torres, C.U.Larrañaga-Cabrera, A.García-Lareo, M.de la Arada-Acebes, A.Martín-Jiménez, E.Pérez-Orcero, A.Hernández-Ibáñez, R.Gonzalo-Voltas, A.Bermúdez-Chillida, N.Simón-Muela, C.Del Carlo, G.Bayona-Faro, C.Rey-Reñones, C.Aguilar-Palacio, I.Grau, M.Effectiveness of telephone monitoring in primary care to detect pneumonia and associated risk factors in patients with SARS-CoV-2ART-2021-127211Improved technology facilitates the acceptance of telemedicine. The aim was to analyze the effectiveness of telephone follow-up to detect severe SARS-CoV-2 cases that progressed to pneumonia. A prospective cohort study with 2-week telephone follow-up was carried out March 1 to May 4, 2020, in a primary healthcare center in Barcelona. Individuals aged =15 years with symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 were included. Outpatients with non-severe disease were called on days 2, 4, 7, 10 and 14 after diagnosis; patients with risk factors for pneumonia received daily calls through day 5 and then the regularly scheduled calls. Patients hospitalized due to pneumonia received calls on days 1, 3, 7 and 14 post-discharge. Of the 453 included patients, 435 (96%) were first attended to at a primary healthcare center. The 14-day follow-up was completed in 430 patients (99%), with 1798 calls performed. Of the 99 cases of pneumonia detected (incidence rate 20.8%), one-third appeared 7 to 10 days after onset of SARS-CoV-2 symptoms. Ten deaths due to pneumonia were recorded. Telephone follow-up by a primary healthcare center was effective to detect SARS-CoV-2 pneumonias and to monitor related complications. Thus, telephone appointments between a patient and their health care practitioner benefit both health outcomes and convenience. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.2021http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/11073810.3390/healthcare9111548http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/110738oai:zaguan.unizar.es:110738Healthcare (Switzerland) 9, 11 (2021), 1548 [11 pp]byhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess