A Canadian Perspective on Patient Experience using Virtual Care During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid change in the delivery of healthcare around the world. Many facilities have transitioned suitable services to virtual care to reduce the risk of viral transmission and preserve healthcare resources for spikes in COVID-19 cases. Since institutions have rapidly expanded the usage of virtual care beyond its previous confines, investigations are required to ensure that the adapted system is working for patients. While important, clinical and patient-reported outcome data do not provide complete insight into the specific impacts of pandemic-time changes from the patient’s perspective. Therefore, to get a complete picture of these changes, it is also necessary to look at patient experience, which evidence suggests, could be impacted by virtual care in positive ways, but only in specific cases. Thus, it is vital to record pandemic-time patient experiences and analyse how the implementation of virtual visits impacts the delivery of person-centred care. This data should be used to determine how virtual care can be optimally implemented into the Canadian healthcare system after the resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it is currently unclear how virtual care will be integrated into the post-pandemic landscape, the approach offers benefits to both patients and providers. Canada-wide, longitudinal studies investigating patient experience using virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic are required in order to ascertain exactly how this novel approach can be leveraged to benefit patients.