Patient and clinician satisfaction with video consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity for a new way of working

Abstract

Objective: To assess satisfaction of patients and clinicians with virtual appointments using Attend Anywhere for their orthodontic consultation and to identify any areas where the technology could be further utilised. Design: Service evaluation involving descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire. Setting: Orthodontic Departments at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital and Burnley General Teaching Hospital. Participants: Patients and clinicians involved in video consultations. Methods: Patient- and clinician-specific questionnaires were designed and those involved in virtual clinics were invited to complete these at the end of their consultation. The questionnaires focused on setting up and connecting to the virtual clinic, assessing if the correct types of patients were involved in the clinics and satisfaction with these types of remote consultations. Results: A total of 121 questionnaires (59 patient and 62 clinician) were completed. Of the patients, 93% found the instructions provided to access the consultation easy to follow and 70% of clinicians did not report any connection issues. In 90% of cases, a virtual appointment was seen to be appropriate by the clinician. Respondents showed a high level of satisfaction with 76% of patients saying a remote consultation was more convenient than face-to-face, and 66% reporting they would, if appropriate, like more appointments like this in the future. Conclusion: The overall satisfaction among patients with virtual clinics introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic was generally high. The majority of patients would, where appropriate, prefer more virtual appointments in the future in comparison to face-to-face appointments and it was found to be more convenient for the patient.

The Research on Patient Satisfaction with Remote Healthcare Prior to and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Logically speaking, the review of concept and theoretical notions should take place prior to the measurement of this construct, while the analysed papers studied patient satisfaction in the reverse order. There were also papers in which satisfaction was not defined at all [43,[46][47][48][49]53,56,61,[64][65][66][67]72,80]. Taking into account both the survey questionnaires developed by the authors as well as well-defined, known, validated and reliable measures, these treat satisfaction as a multi-dimensional construct.…”

Impact of COVID-19 on the Knowledge and Attitudes of Dentists toward Teledentistry

“…Although a number of surveys on dentists’ perception of the use of teledentistry in practice have been published in recent times (Abbas et al 2020; Byrne and Watkinson 2020), comparing the changes in the knowledge and attitudes of dentists toward TD before and during the COVID-19 pandemic have thus far not been studied. Access to this information may help policy makers, health service managers, and clinicians to foster the general adoption of TD during and after this pandemic.…”

Teledentistry pada Pelayanan Gigi dan Mulut dimasa Pandemi COVID-19 Tahun 2020-2021 : A Systematic Review

“…Sejalan dengan Rahman (2020) mengemukakan bahwa sistem juga dirasa mudah . (Byrne & Watkinson, 2020)(Rahman et al, 2020 Teledentistry dirasa juga dapat menghemat waktu dan biaya karena tidak memerlukan moda transportasi, selain itu pasien merasa bahwa tidak perlu tatap muka kepada dokter gigi juga dapat mengurangi paparan virus COVID19 di Rumah Sakit karena dapat menggunakan teledentistry dirumah. (A.Champion, 2021;Abbas, 2020;Ibraheim et al, 2021;Rahman et al, 2020) Provider atau dokter gigi juga menunjukkan respon yang baik dalam mendapatkan informasi penting yang dibutuhkan dalam konsultasi yang berlangsung sehingga dokter gigi juga dapat menjadwalkan waktu yang tepat untuk datang untuk pemeriksaan lanjutan di Rumah Sakit, karena terdapat respon yang menunjukkan bahwa dalam konsultasi teledentistry pasien dapat mengekspresikan keluhannya dengan baik.…”

“…(A.Champion, 2021;Abbas, 2020;Ibraheim et al, 2021;Rahman et al, 2020) Provider atau dokter gigi juga menunjukkan respon yang baik dalam mendapatkan informasi penting yang dibutuhkan dalam konsultasi yang berlangsung sehingga dokter gigi juga dapat menjadwalkan waktu yang tepat untuk datang untuk pemeriksaan lanjutan di Rumah Sakit, karena terdapat respon yang menunjukkan bahwa dalam konsultasi teledentistry pasien dapat mengekspresikan keluhannya dengan baik. (Byrne & Watkinson, 2020)(Rahman et al, 2020 Dokter gigi juga merasa teledentistry dapat digunakan pada seluruh cabang kedokteran gigi seperti dapat melakukan konsultasi radiologi, konsultasi pasca odontektomi, juga dapat meningkatkan akses kesehatan. Interaksi antar sejawat juga dapat dilakukan denga baik, serta dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan tentang teknologi komunikasi sehingga dapat meningkatkan sistem rujukan pasien lebih efisien.…”

“…Dengan pandemi yang masih berlangsung saat ini, maka teledentistry masih menjadi solusi yang baik untuk kontrol rutin dan pembuatan janji temu di klinik. (A.Champion, 2021;Abbas, 2020;Byrne & Watkinson, 2020;NHS England, 2021;Watfa et al, 2021) Dalam penggunaan teledentistry mayoritas pasien dan dokter gigi tidak terlalu memperdulikan adanya masalah teknis seperti adanya gangguan suara maupun video, hal ini tidak mengurangi persepi kemudahan penggunaan dan rasa aman yang didapatkan pada saat konsultasi telemedicine. Kegunaan teledentistry juga dianggap sangat membantu untuk pasien…”