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Observational Study
. 2020 Sep 9;22(9):e20786.
doi: 10.2196/20786.

Patient Satisfaction With Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study

Ashwin Ramaswamy  1 , Miko Yu  1 , Siri Drangsholt  1 , Eric Ng  1 , Patrick J Culligan  1 , Peter N Schlegel  1 , Jim C Hu  1
Affiliations
Observational Study

Patient Satisfaction With Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study

Ashwin Ramaswamy et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: New York City was the international epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care providers responded by rapidly transitioning from in-person to video consultations. Telemedicine (ie, video visits) is a potentially disruptive innovation; however, little is known about patient satisfaction with this emerging alternative to the traditional clinical encounter.

Objective: This study aimed to determine if patient satisfaction differs between video and in-person visits.

Methods: In this retrospective observational cohort study, we analyzed 38,609 Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey outcomes from clinic encounters (620 video visits vs 37,989 in-person visits) at a single-institution, urban, quaternary academic medical center in New York City for patients aged 18 years, from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020. Time was categorized as pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 (before vs after March 4, 2020). Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests and multivariable linear regression were used for hypothesis testing and statistical modeling, respectively.

Results: We experienced an 8729% increase in video visit utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period last year. Video visit Press Ganey scores were significantly higher than in-person visits (94.9% vs 92.5%; P<.001). In adjusted analyses, video visits (parameter estimate [PE] 2.18; 95% CI 1.20-3.16) and the COVID-19 period (PE 0.55; 95% CI 0.04-1.06) were associated with higher patient satisfaction. Younger age (PE -2.05; 95% CI -2.66 to -1.22), female gender (PE -0.73; 95% CI -0.96 to -0.50), and new visit type (PE -0.75; 95% CI -1.00 to -0.49) were associated with lower patient satisfaction.

Conclusions: Patient satisfaction with video visits is high and is not a barrier toward a paradigm shift away from traditional in-person clinic visits. Future research comparing other clinic visit quality indicators is needed to guide and implement the widespread adoption of telemedicine.

Keywords: COVID-19; disruptive technology; health care delivery; health care reform; health policy; health services research; medical informatics; medicine; pandemics; patient satisfaction; physicians; practice patterns; remote consultation; telemedicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: PJC is a stockholder in Origami Surgical and has received consulting fees from Intuitive Surgical, Hologic, Coloplast. JCH receives research support from the Frederick J and Theresa Dow Wallace Fund of the New York Community Trust. PNS reports consulting fees from Roman Health, Gilead Sciences, and Theralogix. The remaining authors report no further disclosures related to this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) diagram detailing the inclusion and exclusion criteria for our study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Violin and box-and-whiskers plot depicting the unadjusted distribution of in-person vs video visits.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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