RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Are telephone consultations the future of the NHS? The outcomes and experiences of an NHS urological service in moving to telemedicine
JF Future Healthcare Journal
JO Future Healthc J
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP fhj.2020-0076
DO 10.7861/fhj.2020-0076
A1 Agathoklis Efthymiadis
A1 Edward JM Hart
A1 Alexandra M Guy
A1 Rebecca Harry
A1 Tharani Mahesan
A1 Wissam Abou Chedid
A1 Santiago Uribe-Lewis
A1 Matthew JA Perry
YR 2020
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2020/10/26/fhj.2020-0076.abstract
AB Objective To evaluate urology patient satisfaction with telephone consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods All patients who received a telephone appointment in a 1-month period were invited to complete a questionnaire. An adaption of the Telehealth Satisfaction Scale (TeSS) was used. Patient responses were compared based on type of clinic, age and gender.Results 119 questionnaires were completed. The majority of responses to the adapted TeSS (Q1–7) were graded as ‘Excellent’, ranging from 79 (66%) to 112 (94%). ‘Agree’ responses ranged from 92 (77%) to 117 (98%) for questions (Q8–12), indicating high satisfaction. Patients consulted in post radical prostatectomy and PSA surveillance clinics gave a significantly greater number of ‘Excellent’ or ‘Agree’ responses. Older age was associated with a significantly greater number of ‘Agree’ responses to one item only. Responses were not affected by gender.Conclusion Our study demonstrates high overall satisfaction with the use of telephone consultations among urology patients. For some patients, telephone consultations are more suitable and may be utilised more frequently in the future. However, it is clear that in selected cases face-to-face consultations are required for safe, comprehensive clinical assessment.