Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin,
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Science, Madison, Wisconsin.
WMJ. 2022 Oct;121(3):181-188.
Telemedicine has become an integral part of primary care since the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper reports patients' assessments of their early telemedicine visits.
Adult primary care patients who had a telemedicine visit were identified from electronic medical records of a large Midwestern health system and randomly invited to participate in semistructured interviews. Participants compared telemedicine visits (audio and video) to face-to-face visits on measures of satisfaction and answered open-ended questions about the technology, primary care relationships, and ongoing use of telemedicine. Interviews were recorded and responses transcribed for qualitative analysis.
The quantitative results revealed participants valued convenience and judged telemedicine visits "about the same" as office visits on satisfaction measures. Participants were largely willing to have another telemedicine visit but were concerned with the technological challenges and lack of physical examination. The qualitative analysis found most participants reported that telemedicine care was best with a known clinician. Further, they judged telemedicine to be best for follow-ups and simple or single problems and believed it should be balanced with face-to-face visits.
Participants expect telemedicine will continue and have clearly articulated their telemedicine preferences. These preferences include telemedicine with a known clinician, the visits that they judged most appropriate for telemedicine, the need to balance telemedicine with face-to-face visits, and assured technologic access. The need for quality measures beyond patient satisfaction and the role of team-based telemedicine care emerged as areas for further research.
自 COVID-19 大流行以来，远程医疗已成为初级保健不可或缺的一部分。本文报告了患者对早期远程医疗就诊的评估。
从一家大型中西部健康系统的电子病历中确定了接受远程医疗就诊的成年初级保健患者，并随机邀请他们参加半结构化访谈。参与者将远程医疗就诊（音频和视频）与面对面就诊在满意度方面进行了比较，并回答了有关技术、初级保健关系以及远程医疗持续使用的开放式问题。采访进行了录音，并对回答进行了转录以进行定性分析。
定量结果显示，参与者重视便利性，并在满意度衡量标准上认为远程医疗就诊“与就诊相同”。参与者大多愿意再进行一次远程医疗就诊，但他们担心技术挑战和缺乏体检。定性分析发现，大多数参与者表示，远程医疗护理最好由熟悉的临床医生提供。此外，他们认为远程医疗最适合随访和简单或单一问题，并认为应将其与面对面就诊相平衡。
参与者预计远程医疗将继续，并明确表达了他们对远程医疗的偏好。这些偏好包括与熟悉的临床医生进行远程医疗、他们认为最适合远程医疗的就诊、需要平衡远程医疗与面对面就诊以及确保技术访问。除了患者满意度之外，还需要进行质量措施的研究，以及团队远程医疗护理的作用也成为了进一步研究的领域。
