Sheffield Sharp1, Dylan Makani1, David Charles1, Kelly Harper1
1Department of Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Objective:
To determine whether patient satisfaction with teleneurology is as good or better than satisfaction with in-person visits and if teleneurology patient satisfaction has been consistent from 2020 to 2021 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Background:
While telehealth has existed since the 1950s, there has been slow adoption and coverage in the U.S. Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) averaged 5-10 direct-to-patient telehealth visits per day. The pandemic led the federal government to implement public health emergency policies that removed barriers to the adoption of telehealth. Within one month, direct-to-patient telehealth visits increased to over 2,000 per day. We report here a review of patient satisfaction data, collected through quality improvement projects.
Design/Methods:
Patients received satisfaction surveys via email. They rated their interactions with their neurologist, the care provided, and whether they felt the care provided met their medical needs. Using the Mann-Whitney U Test to control for sampling size disproportions, we compared teleneurology satisfaction to in-person satisfaction and teleneurology satisfaction at two different time points.
Results:
From March 1st, 2020 to May 31st, 2021, 1,053 patients completed surveys rating their teleneurology visit and 2,850 patients completed surveys rating their in-person visit. The average rating for teleneurology was above 96% compared to 94% for in-person visits. Comparing 2020 teleneurology visits to 2021 teleneurology visits, patients gave an average rating of 97% in 2020 and a 96% average rating in 2021.
Conclusions:
Patient satisfaction with teleneurology is as good or better than satisfaction with in-person visits and has been consistent from 2020 to 2021. Moving forward, access to telehealth must remain a vital part of our healthcare delivery system.