Patient Satisfaction with Telehealth Services in Primary Care.
Telemed J E Health
; 2024 Jul 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38966964
ABSTRACT
Objective:
Patient satisfaction is an imperative factor in integrating telehealth services as a treatment modality in health care systems. Here, we compared patient satisfaction from telehealth versus in-person health care visits in a large heterogeneous population.Methods:
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients making telehealth or in-person primary care visits between January 2021 and August 2022. Patient satisfaction with both service types was evaluated using a validated survey. Logistic regression models were employed to assess the association between type of visit (in-person/telehealth) and patient satisfaction (satisfied/unsatisfied) while accounting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.Results:
Of the 247,087 surveys included in the study, 86,580 (35%) were answered following telehealth visits. Telehealth visitors were more satisfied than in-person visitors in aspects related to doctor-patient interactions, such as "courtesy and respect," "attentive listening," and "coherent explanations" (aOR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.14-1.21; aOR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.12-1.19; aOR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.12-1.18, respectively), and less satisfied in aspects related to indirect services, such as adherence to appointment scheduling, effort required on the part of the patient, and staff cooperation (aOR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.93-0.97; aOR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.87-0.91; aOR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.83-0.87, respectively). Importantly, considerably more telehealth visits were delayed (44%) than in-person visits (27%). Adjustment for this factor further strengthened the observed association between telehealth services and patient satisfaction.Conclusions:
While telehealth was associated with high levels of satisfaction in doctor-patient interaction, improvements are still needed in indirect services. Addressing issues related to staff cooperation and streamlining processes to reduce delays could improve overall patient satisfaction with telehealth.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Telemed J E Health
/
Telemed. j. e. health
/
Telemedicine journal and e-health
Journal subject:
INFORMATICA MEDICA
/
SERVICOS DE SAUDE
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Israel
Country of publication:
United States