A new study from the Cleveland Clinic shows
how virtual care visits have improved patient satisfaction levels and produced
similar outcomes as in-person care.
Patient satisfaction levels can help payers
and providers view telehealth as a reliable option for healthcare delivery. And
in a recent Cleveland Clinic study, researchers found that patients are just as
satisfied with virtual visits as they are with in-person care visits.
The survey was distributed to 426 patients
who had attended a virtual care visit between June 21 and July 12 in 2017. It
sought to collect data on overall patient satisfaction levels, comfort and ease
using technology, and patient-clinician engagement.
Focusing on relationship-centered care
measures allowed researchers to understand how communication and emotions can
impact a patient’s experience with a clinician.
The survey asked patients about
convenience, how the virtual visit compared to an in-person visit, and the
likelihood of using virtual care again. More than 80 percent of patients agreed
or strongly agreed that their virtual visit was as good as an in-person visit,
with 53.2 percent indicating that the experience was better than an in-person
visit.
The majority of respondents agreed or
strongly agreed that the virtual visit made it easy to get the care they needed
and the visit saved them time (90.9 percent and 91.9 percent, respectively).
Most of the patients (92.9 percent) responded that they would attend a virtual
visit again for a healthcare need. The average overall satisfaction score,
using the Likert scale, was 4.4 out of 5.
When asked what they liked most about their
virtual visit, more than one in three patients referenced the convenience and
the fact that they didn’t have to travel and could stay at home for their
appointment.
The average score for technology experience
during virtual care visits was 4.6 out of 5, researchers found. Most of the
patients (93.3 percent) indicated that the platform was easy to use during
their visit and 95.8 percent reported that they felt comfortable using the
technology. However, one in three patients thought the user interface could be
improved.
Some patients reported experiencing
technical difficulties during their visit, which was linked to lower overall
satisfaction levels.
Interestingly, patients also tended to feel
more comfortable during their visit if they hadn’t had any prior interaction
with the clinician, the study noted.
The survey’s patient-clinician engagement
questions focused on the patients’ emotions during the visit and how well the
clinician communicated with them. Overall, this section scored a 4.6 out of 5,
furthering the notion that virtual care can yield beneficial patient
experiences.
More than 90 percent of patients agreed
that their clinician was interested in them as a person and felt the clinician
fully understood their healthcare needs. Nearly 95 percent of respondents said
the clinician helped them create a plan to address their health concern going
forward and that they walked away from the visit understanding how to
accomplish that plan.
The researchers noted other circumstances
that contributed to higher patient satisfaction in their study. For example,
virtual visits with a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant were more
likely to lead to higher rates of patient-clinician engagement than visits with
a family physician.
Almost a quarter of the study participants
were employees of Cleveland Clinic and were on the hospital’s employee health
insurance plan. Those patients had higher odds of patient-clinician engagement
compared to nonemployee participants.
This study adds patient experience and
satisfaction to the growing list of factors that figure into comparing
telehealth and in-person care. Telehealth use for chronic disease treatment and
post-operative physical therapy has also produced similar outcomes to in-person
services.
“Our study found that
virtual visits facilitate health care access and relationship-building,
contributing to satisfying relationship-centered care, a crucial aspect of
contemporary patient experiences,” the researchers concluded. “Even during a
single virtual visit, we found that patients and clinicians could meaningfully
engage in relationship-building practices.”
