Evaluation of remote OMFS assessments in the era of pandemic COVID-19 control measures

Abstract

Pandemic COVID-19 has put unprecedented pressure on NHS providers to offer non face-to-face consultation. This study aims to assess acceptability of patients and clinicians towards teleconsultation in oral and maxillofacial surgery compared with an expected face-to-face assessment. 340 telephone clinic patient episodes were surveyed over the initial 7-week period of pandemic-related service restriction. Appointment outcomes from a further 420 telephone consultations were additionally scrutinised. A total of 59.1% of patients expressed a strong preference for teleconsultation with only 13.1% stating a moderate or strong preference for face-to-face assessment. Diagnostic accuracy was highlighted as a concern for both clinicians and patients due to inherent inability to conduct a traditional clinical examination, notable in 43.5% of qualitative comments. Logistical concerns, communications needs and other individual circumstances formed the other emerging themes. The majority of remote consultations (59.5%) were outcomed as requiring further review. A total of 29.3% of patients were discharged. These findings suggest that the increasing use of remote follow-up in carefully selected subgroups can facilitate efficient and acceptable healthcare delivery. Although 'in-person' clinical appointments will continue to be regarded as the default safe and gold standard management modality, OMFS departments should consider significant upscaling of teleconsultation services.

Cardiological teleconsultation in the coronavirus disease 2019 era: patient’s and physician’s perspective

“…Meanwhile, in the current study, acceptance of teleconsultations was not only high among physicians, but also, crucially, among patients. Moreover, most patients in this study would prefer teleconsultation over face-to-face visits in the future, which is consistent with results from other studies analysing ambulatory patients' preference for teleconsultations [10]. In another manuscript, teleconsultations were indicated as the most convenient form of receiving rheumatology advice by 82% of respondents [11].…”

Is Tele-Dentistry an Effective Approach for Patient Follow-up in Maxillofacial Surgery

“…In the study of Cronin et al [ 20 ] who aimed to explore patients and clinicians acceptability of teleconsultation performed via telephone appointment for different diagnostic groups in maxillofacial surgery practice compared with the in-person assessment they observed that 59.1% of the patients reported a strong preference for teleconsultation. However, clinicians rated 59.5% of remote consultations as requiring further review including the conditions like orthognathic surgery, TMD, salivary gland diseases, and head and neck cancer due to the inability to perform traditional face-to-face examination.…”

Working in the era of COVID-19: An organization model for maxillofacial surgery based on telemedicine and video consultation

“…A low-priority examination might potentially conceal a severe disease, which has not been recognized by the general practitioner, or which has been underestimated by the patient. In such cases, teleconsultations offer a fundamental tool in allowing the specialist in maxillofacial surgery to raise the suspicion of disease, and subsequently intercept it (Cronin et al, 2020;Shanti et al, 2020). Moreover, in our experience, telemedicine has improved the exchange of information between colleagues across the region, leading to closer contact between specialists and general practitioners.…”