TY - JOUR T1 - Clinical perception of effectiveness of virtual appointments and comparison with appointment outcomes at a specialist children's hospital JF - Future Healthcare Journal JO - Future Healthc J SP - e660 LP - e665 DO - 10.7861/fhj.2021-0044 VL - 8 IS - 3 AU - Eve Akintomide AU - Bindi Shah AU - Shankar Sridharan AU - Sheena Visram AU - Neil J Sebire AU - Catherine Peters Y1 - 2021/11/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/8/3/e660.abstract N2 - Introduction A transition from face-to-face to virtual consultations occurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Evaluation of outcome data is essential for future healthcare modelling.Methods Clinicians at a children's hospital evaluated perceptions of face-to-face video and telephone appointments by questionnaire. Responses were compared with operational outcomes from June 2019 and June 2020.Results Ninety-three clinicians responded from 28 subspecialties. Virtual consultations increased from 6% (2019) to 67% (2020). No differences were found between appointment types for recording a medical and social history; a significant difference (p<0.001) was seen for the perceived ability to detect clinical signs, organise investigations and make a diagnosis. The proportion of appointments resulting in discharge compared with face-to-face visits was unchanged. The proportion of patients requiring further contact increased from 35% (32% face-to-face and 3% telephone) to 46% (14% face-to-face; 21% telephone and 11% video; chi-squared 426; p<0.0001).The percentage of patients offered an appointment following two ‘was not brought’ appointments increased from 71% (2019) to 81% (2020) and was most common following telephone appointments (20% face-to-face, 43% telephone and 18% video; chi-squared 474; p<0.0001).Conclusion The perception of clinicians is that virtual appointments enabled continuity of paediatric care with improved clinical assessment capability and attendance during video consultations compared with telephone consultations. ER -