{"title":"Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic as Catalyst for Telemedicine Adoption: A Single-Center Experience.","authors":"Kunal Malhotra, Aparna Sivaraman, Hariharan Regunath","doi":"10.1089/tmr.2020.0003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background:</b> Telemedicine use has increased due to stay-at-home orders during the novel coronavirus 2019 pandemic. We explored ambulatory provider's perception on telemedicine. <b>Methods:</b> An anonymized survey was e-mailed to physicians and midlevel providers of our university hospital ambulatory clinics to assess current use, preferences for future use, and satisfaction with televisits. <b>Results:</b> Of all providers, 249 responded (response rate 24%, 121 [48.6%] men, 177 [71.1%] attending physicians, 43 [17.2%] trainees, and 29 [11.6%] midlevel providers). Most respondents (120, 48.2%) belonged to subspecialties in medicine. At the time of the survey, 168 (67.5%) were using telemedicine for less than half of all visits and had video capabilities, of whom 224 (90%) considered it to be effective for return visits and 37 (15%) perceived it to be effective for new patients, 217 (87.1%) wanted to continue with telemedicine practice, and 113 (45.4%) preferred to use telemedicine for more than a quarter of their future patients even after the pandemic. Most (194 [77.9%]) were satisfied with telemedicine and we found no differences among specialties. Those with audio-only visits reported least effectiveness for new patient evaluation (<i>p</i> < 0.001) and overall provider satisfaction (<i>p</i> = 0.02) when compared with others. Those who saw more than a quarter of their patients through televisits desired to increase their future televisits to >50% including new patients (<i>p</i> < 0.001). <b>Conclusions:</b> There is widespread interest in telemedicine in all specialties. Acceptance is high for return visits, but low for new patient visits. Improvement in technology to have both audio and video capability consistently may foster further interest toward increasing telemedicine in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":22295,"journal":{"name":"Telemedicine reports","volume":" ","pages":"16-21"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8812292/pdf/","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Telemedicine reports","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1089/tmr.2020.0003","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2020/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Background: Telemedicine use has increased due to stay-at-home orders during the novel coronavirus 2019 pandemic. We explored ambulatory provider's perception on telemedicine. Methods: An anonymized survey was e-mailed to physicians and midlevel providers of our university hospital ambulatory clinics to assess current use, preferences for future use, and satisfaction with televisits. Results: Of all providers, 249 responded (response rate 24%, 121 [48.6%] men, 177 [71.1%] attending physicians, 43 [17.2%] trainees, and 29 [11.6%] midlevel providers). Most respondents (120, 48.2%) belonged to subspecialties in medicine. At the time of the survey, 168 (67.5%) were using telemedicine for less than half of all visits and had video capabilities, of whom 224 (90%) considered it to be effective for return visits and 37 (15%) perceived it to be effective for new patients, 217 (87.1%) wanted to continue with telemedicine practice, and 113 (45.4%) preferred to use telemedicine for more than a quarter of their future patients even after the pandemic. Most (194 [77.9%]) were satisfied with telemedicine and we found no differences among specialties. Those with audio-only visits reported least effectiveness for new patient evaluation (p < 0.001) and overall provider satisfaction (p = 0.02) when compared with others. Those who saw more than a quarter of their patients through televisits desired to increase their future televisits to >50% including new patients (p < 0.001). Conclusions: There is widespread interest in telemedicine in all specialties. Acceptance is high for return visits, but low for new patient visits. Improvement in technology to have both audio and video capability consistently may foster further interest toward increasing telemedicine in the future.
背景:由于2019年新型冠状病毒大流行期间的居家令,远程医疗的使用有所增加。我们探讨了门诊医生对远程医疗的看法。方法:通过电子邮件对大学附属医院门诊的医生和中级医务人员进行匿名调查,以评估目前的使用情况、对未来使用的偏好以及对电视的满意度。结果:共有249名医护人员回应,其中男性121人(48.6%),主治医师177人(71.1%),实习医师43人(17.2%),中级医护人员29人(11.6%)。大多数受访者(120人,48.2%)属于医学亚专科。在进行调查时,168家(67.5%)医院使用远程医疗进行不到一半的就诊,并具有视频功能,其中224家(90%)认为远程医疗对回访有效,37家(15%)认为远程医疗对新患者有效,217家(87.1%)希望继续进行远程医疗实践,113家(45.4%)希望对超过四分之一的未来患者使用远程医疗,即使在大流行之后。大多数(194例[77.9%])对远程医疗感到满意,科室间无差异。与其他患者相比,那些只进行音频访问的患者报告的新患者评估效果最低(p p = 0.02)。那些通过电视看诊超过四分之一患者的医生希望将他们未来的电视看诊率提高到50%以上,包括新患者(p)。结论:所有专业对远程医疗都有广泛的兴趣。复诊的接受度很高,但新病人的接受度很低。同时具备音频和视频功能的技术改进可能会促进对未来增加远程医疗的进一步兴趣。