Table 3.
Supporting Quotes.
| Theme | Supporting quote |
|---|---|
| Patient-perceived risks due to COVID-19 | |
| Information on risks | I don't always believe in social media unless they are being—some are not fact checked. But the news, to me the news is safe and most secure. (P11) |
| I take it very seriously and I assumed because of my age I’m at higher risk. I watch the news and what people were doing and what the city was or the province were advising. But I didn't particularly go to any website or anything to further my education. (P17) | |
| Risk of hospital exposure to COVID-19 | I was a little apprehensive about going into the hospital. Not just that one time but for ten solid days I had to go. So, that was a little nerve-wracking because what if one of the ten days that I’m there I actually catch it? Then what? My immune system is already compromised. (P10) |
| What I felt really great about is the cancer center is separated from the hospital. So, it started to occur to me that they’ve been dealing with immune-compromised people for years, as long as the centre has opened. So, I felt like they were ahead of the curve. Like, from the moment I started treatment there you had to spray your hands. There's been symptom screening since the first treatment I went to, that I noticed. (P07) | |
| Risk of delaying cancer treatment | Once I got my diagnosis, I mean, ultimately, I felt like this was a necessity. It's not something that I could postpone or put on hold until there was a vaccine or a better solution than what we already have for COVID. (P06) |
| I had just had my fifth out of sixth chemo treatments and I was just worried about what was going to happen with my final chemo treatment and my surgery. And, I’m still waiting for radiation right now and how it would affect my timeline. I just wanted to get my treatments going and not having any delays. (P13) | |
| Patient perceptions of virtual care | |
| Benefits of virtual care | For me, it's really helpful because I can send the link to my mom – we live in separate households. I personally am bad at asking the right questions and she has a lot more background in this kind of stuff than I do. So, it was really helpful for me to have those virtual appointments and they are super easy. (P18) |
| It's definitely a bonus that you don't have to be going back and forth to the hospital. I’m outside of the city so it's a little bit of a drive and this obviously saves a lot of time. (P14) | |
| Drawbacks of virtual care | With lung cancer, the one thing I do miss is not having the doctor listen to my lungs, which we can't do virtually. I think that's more of a security thing for me. I don't get her to listen to my lungs all the time at every appointment but sometimes, if I feel like something's up, then she’ll do a quick listen and then let me know what she thinks. (P04) |
| Well, I’ve never met my doctor. I’ve only ever talked to him on the telephone and I feel quite disconnected because the last time I saw a real doctor was in March. And then I was transferred to my current doctor and it's been all telephone and two video conferences. I’ve never been face to face with him. (P03) | |
| Optimizing virtual care | I would definitely like the option of choosing. As much as I prefer the virtual video calls, I would much prefer coming to the hospital and meeting, just looking the doctor in the eye. Certainly, important visits I would prefer to be a little inconvenienced to come to the hospital providing that there is no imminent danger with COVID going forward. (P02) |