Virtual visits may provide similar satisfaction as office visits among pediatric patients
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CHICAGO — Results presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting showed virtual visits may provide similar patient and encounter-specific satisfaction as in-person visits among pediatric patients.
“The aim of the study was to quantify and evaluate the satisfaction score of pediatric orthopedic virtual visits through the evaluation of post-encounter questionnaires, and we compared those to the in-office visits using a sensitive validated survey that collected data on ease of access, care provider, telemedicine technology, overall assessment and then perception-related satisfaction parameters,” Dominic King, DO, sports medicine physician and director of clinical transformation at the Orthopedic and Rheumatology Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, told Healio.
Most patients expressed high satisfaction with both virtual visits and office visits, with good or excellent satisfaction rates consistently greater than 85% attained across all measured parameters, according to results of a bivariate analysis. Although researchers found an association between a higher odds of patients reporting good or excellent satisfaction levels with the ease of scheduling a virtual visit appointment, patients also had lower odds of reporting good or excellent satisfaction with the ability to schedule their virtual visit at a convenient time and with providers’ explanation of their condition in a virtual setting.
“There is a need not only for patients to be seen through a virtual visit, but patients want to schedule virtual visits in the same way that they schedule in-person visits, meaning that the convenience of having a virtual visit isn’t the only convenience. They still want to be able to schedule it at the right time of the day,” King said. “It helps us to understand that any platform that we design in the future needs to be able to be a standard experience across all of those environments.”
Results showed all virtual encounter-specific parameters demonstrated greater than 75% rates of good or excellent satisfaction. Among patients who had virtual visits, researchers noted good or excellent satisfaction was reported among 89% of patients for ease of talking to the provider over a video connection; 86% of patients for adequacy of the video connection throughout the visit; 90% of patients for adequacy of audio connection throughout the encounter and 77% of patients for overall satisfaction with their virtual encounter relative to their prior experiences with in-person office visits.
“The takeaway here is leveraging the right technology and partnering that with a compassionate and capable caregiver allows you to reach far beyond your geographic boarders to reach patients that you may have never thought you would be able to,” King said.
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Emara A, et al. Poster 434. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting. March 22-26, 2022; Chicago.
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