32 Patient satisfaction with urogynecology telemedicine office visits during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objectives

During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine is increasingly utilized for healthcare delivery in the urogynecology world. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate patient satisfaction with telemedicine visits in an academic urogynecology practice. We sought to determine the extent to which patients had their questions and concerns addressed during both new and return patient visits. We hypothesized that patients would show high rates of satisfaction with the technology given current concerns surrounding in-person care.

Materials and Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we contacted patients who used a single health system’s telemedicine platform to attend a urogynecology office visit from April 1, 2020, to May 31, 2020. All patients were seen by a board certified FPMRS physician or urogynecologic physician assistant. To survey the patients, a modified telehealth patient satisfaction questionnaire was reviewed with the patient over the phone within 1 week following their telemedicine encounter using a 5-point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The medical chart was queried for additional office visits or telephone contact following their telemedicine encounter. Descriptive statistics and Fisher’s Exact tests were used for analyses (JMP Pro 14.2.0).

Results

In total, 94 subjects were included with mean age 56.2 (SD 16.1), majority white race (n = 87, 92.6%), and mean BMI = 28.0 (SD = 6.8). The subjects had a variety of chief complaints: 26 (28.0%) for prolapse, 20 (21.5%) for urinary incontinence, 16 (17.2%) for routine follow-up, 13 (14.0%) for post-operative care, 8 (8.6%) for voiding difficulty, 6 (6.5%) for pelvic pain, 3 (3.2%) for urinary tract infections, and 1 (1.1%) for mesh complications. The majority of patients answered either “agree” or “strongly agree” with the statement “All of my questions and concerns were addressed to my satisfaction during my video visit” (n = 89, 94.7%) Table 1. Despite the majority of patients agreeing or strongly agreeing with the positive aspects of their telemedicine visits (Questionnaire 1-3, 5, and 6) Table 1, a majority preferred to see the specialist in person, despite travel inconveniences, at their next visit (n = 66, 70.2%). Neither satisfaction (Q6) nor desire for in-person visit (Q4) were associated with a specific chief complaint. Desire for in-person visit was significantly associated with new patient visit as compared with follow up visits (P = 0.03).

Conclusion

Urogynecology patients are satisfied with their care received via telemedicine, but still may prefer in person visits. This preference may be related to specific visit types. Further studies are needed to determine ways to improve the telemedicine experience for urogynecology patients and determine which patient groups would be best served by this technology.