Virtual clinics for glaucoma care – Patients’ and clinicians’ experiences and perceptions: a qualitative evaluation

Abstract

Background The role of glaucoma virtual clinics has developed to help meet demand for capacity within busy glaucoma services. There is limited research of patient and clinician experiences and perceptions of these clinics and the aim of this study is to provide further information to help improve patient experience and guide service delivery. Methods A mixed methods research design was employed comprising of a patient satisfaction survey, and patient and clinician interviews. Consultant ophthalmologists were recruited from throughout the UK, and patients and data gathering clinical staff recruited from the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and Bristol Eye Hospital. Results We received a total of 148 patient satisfaction questionnaires with an overall response rate of 55.4%. Most respondents were diagnosed with primary open angle glaucoma (33.9%) at Manchester and glaucoma suspect status at Bristol (50.6%). Patients had high levels of confidence in the person conducting the tests (94.8% Manchester, 98.8% Bristol), and most were likely to recommend the service to family or friends (94.8% Manchester, 92.6% Bristol). We interviewed 10 consultant ophthalmologists, 10 data gathering staff and 20 patients. A number of key themes emerged from the transcribed interviews including: patient experience, clinician perception of patient experience, service delivery, staffing and staff experience, and patient safety. Conclusions Glaucoma virtual clinics can be acceptable to both clinicians and patients, including those with a varied complexity of glaucoma and glaucoma-related disease. Dissatisfaction seemed to relate to poor communication or processes and systems within the service rather than complexity of disease.

Patients’ Satisfaction on Virtual Clinic in Primary Health Care Centers in Prince Sultan Military Medical City, 2020-2021: A Qualitative Study

“…Our study showed high satisfaction rate between the patients who benefit from virtual clinic, similar findings also reported by on local study [19], and multiple international studies [8-13,16-18], primary care-based studies [9][10][11] and specialized care settings studies [9,12,16,18].…”

“…Our interviewees did not mention technical issues as compared to some studies that reported technical issues during the consultation. [9,10,15,16]. However, the studies which involved advanced technology has more challenges comparing to basic simple ones.…”

A Review From Different Virtual Care Studies With the Aspects on the Clinical Benefit and Health Care Management Effectiveness During the Covid-19 Period

“…Both outcomes present the system integration need and cooperation between caregiver and patient. Same dissatisfaction outcome has been obtained in Ophthalmology review from the reason of communication issue with the provided virtual system, even though the main outcome with Glaucoma virtual clinics can be acceptable to both clinicians and patients, including those with a varied complexity of glaucoma and glaucoma related disease [24]. On the other hand; in ENT surgery side aspect, the new system alignments in treatment protocol with virtual care concept should be applied to patients in an out-patient setting [25].…”

Physician Satisfaction With Virtual Ophthalmology Clinics During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Tertiary Eye Care Center Experience

“…Effective telemedicine services depend on the acceptance and satisfaction of both healthcare users and service providers [ 8 - 10 ]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a simplified telemedical setup was easy and was widely accepted by diabetic patients and healthcare providers [ 11 ].…”