Patient Satisfaction with Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Pediatric Pulmonary Clinic

Abstract

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has drastically impacted health care delivery systems and has resulted in the rapid implementation of telehealth services across many health care specialties. As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to leverage digital mediums to increase patient access to health care, our pediatric pulmonary division sought to measure patient satisfaction with a new telehealth platform. Method: A survey was sent to 281 pediatric pulmonary patients from March 2020 to April 2020. Parents were asked to rate their overall experience with telemedicine. Results: Fifty surveys were completed, and results indicated that overall initial satisfaction with care was high. Eighty-two percent of participants either strongly agreed or agreed that they would use telehealth services again. Discussion: The positive outcome measures may reflect increased patient comfort with integrating telehealth into routine pediatric pulmonary care services. Given high patient satisfaction ratings, we believe that the telehealth platform should be considered for use in routine practice after the COVID-19 pandemic has resolved.

The development of evaluation scale of the patient satisfaction with telemedicine: a systematic review

“…Most of included studies ( n = 32) were conducted in United States [ 17 – 48 ], and a few were conducted in Italy ( n = 3) [ 49 – 51 ], Spain ( n = 2) [ 52 , 53 ], Egypt ( n = 1) [ 54 ], Australia ( n = 1) [ 55 ], India ( n = 1) [ 56 ], United Kingdom ( n = 1) [ 57 ], Canada( n = 1) [ 58 ], France ( n = 1) [ 59 ], Colombia ( n = 1) [ 60 ]. The vast majority included studies ( n = 38) reported on the types of participants’ diseases, which includes head and neck otolaryngology ( n = 1) [ 17 ], pediatric ( n = 1) [ 52 ], physical, occupational, and speech therapy ( n = 1) [ 18 ], orthopaedic ( n = 1) [ 19 ], pediatric pulmonary ( n = 1) [ 20 ], cancer ( n = 4) [ 21 , 30 , 50 , 58 ], neurology ( n = 1) [ 22 ], pediatric urology ( n = 1) [ 24 ], rhinology (n = 1) [ 25 ], neuromuscular disorder ( n = 1) [ 26 ], allergy ( n = 1) [ 27 ], pediatric diabetes ( n = 1) [ 28 ], epilepsy (n = 1) [ 56 ], prechemotherapy ( n = 1) [ 29 ], pediatric rheumatology ( n = 1) [ 32 ], neurosurgery (n = 1) [ 33 ], cystic fibrosis ( n = 1) [ 35 ], pediatric and young adult type 1 diabetes ( n = 1) [ 49 ], shoulder arthroscopy ( n = 1) [ 36 ], pediatric surgery ( n = 1) [ 53 ], vascular surgery ( n = 1) [ 57 ], maternal mental health and substance use disorder treatment ( n = 1) [ 38 ], referral ( n = 1) [ 39 ], dermatology ( n = 1) [ 40 ], endovascular neurosurgery ( n = 1) [ 41 ], gynecologic cancer ( n = 1) [ 42 ], orthopedic ( ...…”

“…While the remaining studies ( n = 6) did not limit the patient types [ 23 , 31 , 34 , 37 , 54 , 55 ]. For the evaluation questionnaire, there are part of studies ( n = 16) using existing questionnaires [ 17 , 22 , 26 , 28 , 30 , 32 – 34 , 42 , 46 , 47 , 50 , 55 , 56 , 58 , 59 ], a few of studies’ questionnaire ( n = 3) were designed based on different studies [ 21 , 24 , 49 ], several studies ( n = 7) evaluating by self-developed questionnaires [ 19 , 25 , 29 , 39 , 51 , 57 , 60 ], and some ( n = 18) studies did not mension the specific questionnaires used [ 18 , 20 , 23 , 27 , 31 , 35 – 38 , 40 , 41 , 43 – 45 , 48 , 52 – 54 ]. In addition, the questionnaires used in several studies ( n = 18) were divided into various dimensions [ 17 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 32 , 34 , 37 , 38 , 44 , 47 , 49 – 51 , 53 – 55 , 57 ].…”

Satisfaction with pediatric telehealth according to the opinions of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: A literature review

“…Much research focused on satisfaction with telehealth among parents and medical providers (34,(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61). Research on satisfaction with telehealth among children and adolescents, especially per country, is very limited.…”

Telehealth: A Useful Tool for the Management of Nutrition and Exercise Programs in Pediatric Obesity in the COVID-19 Era

“…Capusan et al [45] evaluated the application of telemedicine to a group of children with pulmonary disease; following the visits, a questionnaire regarding the experience of telemedicine was administered to parents with questions related to technology (i.e., type of device used, platform used, and so on), visit, overall satisfaction, and likelihood of using the telemedicine platform again. The survey results indicated high overall satisfaction with telemedicine: 82% of participants strongly agreed or agreed that they would use telemedicine services again.…”

“…The survey results indicated high overall satisfaction with telemedicine: 82% of participants strongly agreed or agreed that they would use telemedicine services again. Two main limitations were identified: a low response rate to the questionnaire (50/281, about 18%) and the short duration of the survey, which lasted only one month [45].…”