TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ramaswamy, Ashwin
AU  - Yu, Miko
AU  - Drangsholt, Siri
AU  - Ng, Eric
AU  - Culligan, Patrick J
AU  - Schlegel, Peter N
AU  - Hu, Jim C
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/9/9
TI  - Patient Satisfaction With Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e20786
VL  - 22
IS  - 9
KW  - telemedicine
KW  - medicine
KW  - pandemics
KW  - patient satisfaction
KW  - remote consultation
KW  - disruptive technology
KW  - medical informatics
KW  - health care delivery
KW  - practice patterns
KW  - physicians
KW  - health policy
KW  - health services research
KW  - health care reform
KW  - COVID-19
AB  - Background: New York City was the international epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care providers responded by rapidly transitioning from in-person to video consultations. Telemedicine (ie, video visits) is a potentially disruptive innovation; however, little is known about patient satisfaction with this emerging alternative to the traditional clinical encounter. Objective: This study aimed to determine if patient satisfaction differs between video and in-person visits. Methods: In this retrospective observational cohort study, we analyzed 38,609 Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey outcomes from clinic encounters (620 video visits vs 37,989 in-person visits) at a single-institution, urban, quaternary academic medical center in New York City for patients aged 18 years, from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020. Time was categorized as pre–COVID-19 and COVID-19 (before vs after March 4, 2020). Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests and multivariable linear regression were used for hypothesis testing and statistical modeling, respectively. Results: We experienced an 8729% increase in video visit utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period last year. Video visit Press Ganey scores were significantly higher than in-person visits (94.9% vs 92.5%; P<.001). In adjusted analyses, video visits (parameter estimate [PE] 2.18; 95% CI 1.20-3.16) and the COVID-19 period (PE 0.55; 95% CI 0.04-1.06) were associated with higher patient satisfaction. Younger age (PE –2.05; 95% CI –2.66 to –1.22), female gender (PE –0.73; 95% CI –0.96 to –0.50), and new visit type (PE –0.75; 95% CI –1.00 to –0.49) were associated with lower patient satisfaction. Conclusions: Patient satisfaction with video visits is high and is not a barrier toward a paradigm shift away from traditional in-person clinic visits. Future research comparing other clinic visit quality indicators is needed to guide and implement the widespread adoption of telemedicine. 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - http://www.jmir.org/2020/9/e20786/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/20786
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32810841
DO  - 10.2196/20786
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/20786
ER  -