Telemedicine gets mixed reviews from ID consultants, referring providers
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A survey revealed significant differences in the perception of telemedicine between infectious disease consultants and referring providers after Yale-New Haven Hospital began using remote consultation last year because of the pandemic.
Overall, 80% of respondents said telemedicine ID consultation offered care that was the same or better than traditional consultation. However, the majority of infectious disease consultants indicated that telemedicine quality was worse overall than traditional consultation, “despite being more timely than traditional consults,” researchers wrote.
“This study provides unique insight into the perceptions of ID telemedicine for hospitalized patients,” Joseph E. Canterino, MD, a physician at Yale University School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “We found significant differences between referring and consulting providers in perceptions of quality and timeliness of telemedicine ID consults.”
According to Canterino and colleagues, the hospital transitioned to remote ID consultations for hospitalized patients last March after never previously using telemedicine. Consultants were able to choose a synchronous or asynchronous format.
“The primary difference between synchronous and asynchronous consults was the ability to have a direct conversation by telephone or video with the patient,” Canterino and colleagues wrote.
For the study, the researchers created, sent and analyzed a web-based questionnaire that evaluated provider satisfaction with telemedicine consultation service during the study period, which was March 27 to May 22, 2020. Of the 551 surveys that were sent, 107 referring providers and 23 ID consultants completed the questionnaire.
The majority of providers who responded (73.8%) were attending physicians, and approximately 54.2% of referring providers requested five or more ID consultations over the study period.
Approximately 66.9% of respondents rated the quality of telemedicine consultation the same or better than traditional consultation, and 98.5% said telemedicine was the same or better in regard to timeliness. Additionally, 80% of respondents said communication between teams via telemedicine was the same or better than in a traditional setting.
However, 73.9% of infectious disease consultants rated the quality of telemedicine as worse than standard care, compared with 24.3% of referring providers (P < .001). No significant disparities were found between referring providers and infectious disease consultants when assessing the communication quality of telemedicine.
“Telemedicine provides much needed-flexibility to the health system, especially during a pandemic when health care workers may be isolated or quarantined,” Canterino and colleagues wrote. “Future qualitative and quantitative research should explore differences in synchronous vs. asynchronous telemedicine consults, the effect of the availability of specialized electronic equipment on provider satisfaction, reasons for ID provider dissatisfaction with telemedicine, and the effect of telemedicine on infection outcomes.”
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