Perception and satisfaction of patients after telemedicine urology consultations: A matched analysis with physicians’ perspective

Authors

  • Bruno Turcotte Laval University
  • Lynda Bélanger
  • Anne-Sophie Blais
  • Annie-Claude Blouin
  • Stéphane Bolduc
  • Amélie Bolduc-Mokhtar
  • Michel Bureau
  • Yves Caumartin
  • Jonathan Cloutier
  • Marie-Pier Deschênes-Rompré
  • Thierry Dujardin
  • Yves Fradet
  • Noémie Gaudreau
  • Louis Lacombe
  • Katherine Moore
  • Fannie Morin
  • Geneviève Nadeau
  • Sophie Paquet
  • Francis Simard
  • David Simonyan
  • Frédéric Soucy
  • Rabi Tiguert
  • Paul Toren
  • Michele Lodde
  • Frédéric Pouliot

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5489/cuaj.7819

Keywords:

COVID-19, Satisfaction, Telemedicine, Urology

Abstract

Introduction: During the first regional COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, we conducted a study aimed at evaluating completeness of telemedicine consultation in urology. Of 1679 consultations, 67% were considered completely managed by phone. The aim of the present study was to assess patients’ experience and satisfaction with telemedicine and to compare them with urologists’ perceptions about quality and completeness of the telemedicine consultation.

Methods: We contacted a randomly selected sample of patients (n=356) from our previous study to enquire about their experience. We used a home patient experience questionnaire, inspired by the Patient Experiences Questionnaire for Out-of-Hours Care (PEQOHC) and the Consumer Assessment Health Profile Survey (CAHPS).

Results: Of 356 patients contacted, 315 agreed to complete the questionnaire. Urological consultations were for non-oncological (104), oncological (121), cancer suspicion (41), and pediatric (49) indications. Mean patient satisfaction score after telemedicine consultation was 8.8/10 (median 9/10) and 86.3% of patients rated the quality of the consultation as either excellent (54.6%) or very good (31.7%). Consultations regarding cancer suspicion had the lowest score (8.3/10). Overall, 46.7% of all patients would have preferred an in-person visit outside of the pandemic situation. Among patients whose consultations were rated suboptimal by urologists, almost a third more (31.2%) would have preferred an in-person visit (p=0.03).

Conclusions: Despite high reported patient satisfaction rates with telemedicine, it is noteworthy that nearly half of the patients would have preferred an in-person visit. Post-pandemic, it will be important to incorporate telemedicine as an alternative, while retaining and offering in-person visits.

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Author Biography

Bruno Turcotte, Laval University

PGY-1 urology

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Published

2022-05-20

How to Cite

Turcotte, B., Bélanger, L., Blais, A.-S., Blouin, A.-C., Bolduc, S., Bolduc-Mokhtar, A., Bureau, M., Caumartin, Y., Cloutier, J., Deschênes-Rompré, M.-P., Dujardin, T., Fradet, Y., Gaudreau, N., Lacombe, L., Moore, K., Morin, F., Nadeau, G., Paquet, S., Simard, F., Simonyan, D., Soucy, F., Tiguert, R., Toren, P., Lodde, M., & Pouliot, F. (2022). Perception and satisfaction of patients after telemedicine urology consultations: A matched analysis with physicians’ perspective. Canadian Urological Association Journal, 16(10), 334–9. https://doi.org/10.5489/cuaj.7819

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 10 (2022): CUAJ October

Section

Original Research

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