Patient Interest in Video Integration for After-Hours Telemedicine

Abstract

Purpose: To understand patient attitudes, access toward video calling to enhance efficiency of afterhours triage calls. Methods: We surveyed patients aged 18 to 89 years. Questions included demographics, preferences, access to video calling devices, and perceived advantages and disadvantages of this technology. Answers were entered into Qualtrics database and analyzed using JMP 11 (SAS, Cary, NC). Results: Two hundred ninety-eight patients agreed to participate. Mean age was 47.9 years; 71.6% were female; and 75.1% had access to video calling device. Device proficiency was inversely related to age and greatest in 18-to-32-years group (x 2 = 71.18, P < .0001). Seventy-one percent of patients enjoyed video communication, directly proportional to education (trend test Z = 2.78, P < .005). Adjusted for both age and education, respondents with college education or above were 3 times more likely to self identify as "good' with video (OR, 3.11; 95% CI, 1.48-6.64); those under age 48 had even higher proficiency (Odds ratio (OR), 13.9; 95% CI, 4.79-59.34). Patients with prior video experience were 3 times more likely to prefer video calling (Relative risk (RR) = 3.46; 95% CI, 1.95-6.11). Patients calling their doctor 5 or more times annually preferred video calling significantly more than calling by telephone (RR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.31-1.97). Faster contact with the primary care provider (19.8%) was the most perceived advantage. Loss of in-person interaction with doctor (37.1%) was the greatest perceived disadvantage. Conclusions: Patients seem to have access and interest in video communication for after-hours calls. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether addition of video component to after-hours triage calls will help reduce unnecessary emergency department visits.

Factors Associated With the Utilization of Outpatient Virtual Clinics: Retrospective Observational Study Using Multilevel Analysis

“…Despite these limitations, our study is unique in the following ways: First, unlike most of the virtual clinic studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic with lockdown or shelter-in-place orders and restrictions of regular medical services [6,7,[12][13][14][15]36,47], our study was conducted with the background that virtual clinics and in-person clinics were both equally and easily accessible and the utilization of virtual clinics was not largely affected by the pandemic. Second, unlike most prior studies that focused only on patient-level variables that may affect the use of virtual clinics [12,13,36,37,48], we used multilevel analyses to show that insurance type, disease type, physician's attitude, and specialties are associated with the utilization of virtual clinics independent of patient demographic characteristics. Third, many prior telemedicine studies were small and focused on specific patient populations of 1 specific medical specialty [6,9,10,13,25].…”

Utilization and Staff Perspectives on an On-Demand Telemedicine Model for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Who Reside in Certified Group Residences

“…On-demand, synchronous telemedicine may be a promising supplement to usual care when non-emergency medical problems arise after-hours or when immediate care is otherwise unavailable. 21 , 22 Telemedicine, a subset of telehealth, refers to the use of electronic information and communication technologies to provide health care at a distance. 23 , 24 Although synchronous telemedicine increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, 25 , 26 it is critical to identify telemedicine initiatives that maximize its known benefits to underserved populations, including PIDD.…”