Patient Satisfaction with Telemedicine in a Virtual Lung Transplant Clinic

Abstract

Rationale: During the COVID-19 pandemic telemedicine has emerged as an alternative medical care platform, being used more frequently in an effort to decrease the risk of exposure to both the patients and their health care providers. Close monitoring of lung transplant patients is crucial, as they are at a particularly vulnerable population due to chronic immunosuppression and coexisting comorbidities. Our study evaluates the patient satisfaction and technical feasibility of telemedicine visits after lung transplantation. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed at the University of Maryland Lung Transplant center during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction with the clinic visit measured by a Telemedicine Satisfaction Questionnaire (23 questions). The telemedicine clinics were conducted between March 2020 and November 2020. The survey was designed after a forum discussion with a representative group of lung transplant patients and was initially sent to all lung transplant patients seen in this timeframe;a second follow-up survey was sent six month later. Results: In March 2020, 148 lung transplant patients received an initial survey via email. Fiftythree patients who completed the survey were included in the study. From the survey responses, 94% of patients considered the care they received via the telemedicine program to be very good to excellent;in subsequent follow-up satisfaction was still high at 89% of patients. In the first and second surveys, 96% and 94% of patients reported a good understanding of the use electronic devices, respectively. The majority of patients (59%) reported decreased travel-associated costs during the first survey, which then increased to 85% of patients during the follow-up survey. Conclusion: High levels of patient satisfaction were seen in lung transplant patients after the implementation of a telemedicine program in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Decreased travel-associated costs were reported by the majority of patients, especially in the 6-month follow-up survey. Our study suggests that a telemedicine program may decrease the travel-associated costs while maintaining high levels of satisfaction in a very complex population of lung transplant patients. Studies evaluating the role of telemedicine on clinical outcomes require further investigation.