We chose to investigate telehealth & it's impact on patient satisfaction. We sought to answer what parts are telehealth patients satisfied with? and what parts are they disatisfied with? First we must understand what is telehealth & why is patient satisfaction important.
What is telehealth?
- "The use of telecommunications and informaiton technologies to support long distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration" (Phenicie et al., 2021).
Examples of care via telehealth:
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phone call
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Videoconferencing
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secure messaging
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Email
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remote patient monitoring
Telehealth has been on the rise, ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing patients to recieve safe and quality care from the comfort of their own homes. With this increase comes the responsibility of considering how this new method of healthcare affects a patient's overall quality and satisfaction of care.
What is patient satisfaction?
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subjective measurement of the patient's expectations of a healthcare encounter
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commonly used for measuring the quality of care
With the increased use of telehealth, it is important to maintain patient satifaction regardless of the method of delivery. In a systematic review of this data, it was shown that a positive patient experience can help decrease mortality, physical symptoms, length of hospital stays, and treatment compliance (Doyle et al., 2013). With these outcomes in mind, it is important to evaluate patient’s experiences with telehealth and determine what drives patient satisfaction.
