SOCIAL MEDIA MESSENGER: USEFUL TOOL FOR DECISION MAKING IN OBSTETRIC EMERGENCY DUTY HOURS.

Aim & Objective: To evaluate social media messenger usage for communication between consulting and emergency doctors on duty in emergency room of Obstetrics & Gynecology department (OBGY).To compare social media messenger as communication tool with traditional methods of communication in emergency duty hours. Method: A retrospective, observational study was conducted in the emergency of OBGY department of our tertiary care hospital between January 2016 and December 2016. A total of 246 consultations were included in the study. The messages that were transferred to consultant gynecologists consisted of 92 (37.4 %) photographic images, 240 (97.5 %) text messages, 12 (4.8 %) videos, and 10 (4.1 %) voice messages. Results: Treatment was started within 15 min in 178 (72.3%) cases and within 30 min in 56(22.7%) women. 136(55.3%) women were shifted within 20 minutes for surgery after the response on messenger. 83(33.7%) women were shifted to HDU(High dependency unit) and 21(8.5%) women to ICU after consultation. 13 (5.3%)critical women were saved due to timely intervention. Most of the consulting physicians were outside of the hospital or were mobile at the time of the consultation (n = 192, 78.0 %). The outside consultation request rate was significantly higher for night shifts than for day shifts (p = .004), and the majority of outside consultation request were concluded by only response on application (p < .001).44(17.8%) cases required visit of consulting gynecologist and the gynecologist was available within an average time of 26 minutes. Conclusion: Social media messenger is useful innovation in emergency healthcare, especially for doctor on duty and who are outside the hospital, because of the ability to transfer large amounts of clinical and radiological data during a short period of time.