Virtual phone clinics in orthopaedics: evaluation of clinical application and sustainability

AimsAdoption of virtual clinics has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and they will continue to form an integral part of healthcare delivery. Our objective was to evaluate virtual clinics in orthopaedic practice and determine how to use them effectively and sustainably.MethodsWe surveyed 100...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ open quality 2021-10, Vol.10 (4), p.e001349
Main Authors: Pradhan, Raj, Peeters, Wouter, Boutong, Sara, Mitchell, Chris, Patel, Rahul, Faroug, Rad, Roussot, Mark
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age groups
Clinics
Consultants
Coronaviruses
cost-effectiveness
COVID-19
Health administration
Original Research
Orthopedics
Pandemics
Patient satisfaction
Quality control
Quality improvement
Questionnaires
Social distancing
Telemedicine
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Summary:AimsAdoption of virtual clinics has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and they will continue to form an integral part of healthcare delivery. Our objective was to evaluate virtual clinics in orthopaedic practice and determine how to use them effectively and sustainably.MethodsWe surveyed 100 consecutive patients participating in orthopaedic virtual phone clinic (VPC) at an academic hospital to evaluate patient satisfaction against face-to-face (F2F) consultations and obtain suggestions for improving patient experience, and we surveyed 23 clinicians who conducted orthopaedic VPCs in 2020. Data were correlated with clinic outcomes, reason for consultation, diagnosis, patient age and clinician grade. Consultation duration, clinician-associated costs and reimbursement were analysed. Significance was tested using two-tailed Student’s t-test and Fisher’s exact test.ResultsPatient satisfaction (out of 5) for VPC was significantly lower than F2F (4.1 vs 4.5, p=0.0003), and a larger proportion of VPC scored
ISSN:2399-6641
2399-6641
DOI:10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001349