Previously submitted to: JMIR Formative Research (no longer under consideration since Mar 24, 2022)
Date Submitted: Jul 29, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Patient attitudes toward telemental health care: A survey of psychiatric outpatients 10 months into the COVID-19 pandemic
ABSTRACT
Background:
Beginning in March 2020, state-of-emergency policy changes at the state and federal level greatly expanded accessibility to telehealth, allowing patients to receive ongoing care while limiting in-person interactions to mitigate transmission of COVID-19.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to broadly understand patients’ satisfaction with and attitudes towards receiving telemental health care 10 months into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
A questionnaire was designed and administered to elicit comprehensive feedback about telehealth care, and to gauge participants’ desire to use it in the future. Survey questions were rated on 5-point Likert scale. Participants were asked about their desire to continue telemental health care post-pandemic.
Results:
Most of the 602 participants reported favorable experiences with telemental health care. 505 (84.4%) were satisfied or extremely satisfied, and 527 (88.6%) rated the use of telehealth extremely easy or easy, 531(89.1 %) rated overall comfort with telehealth as very comfortable or comfortable. A majority felt at ease using a private 491(82.5%) and quiet space 509(86.0%) to communicate using telehealth. Perceived benefits of telemental health care were varied and included improved ability to manage work and family obligations. Quality of care was comparable to in-person visits. A majority 523(86.88%) of participants would like to have telemental health offered as an option in the future, even after the pandemic resolves.
Conclusions:
Nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, patients rated telemental health care highly across measures of satisfaction, comfort, ease of use, and quality of care. Participants reported tangible benefits of telemental health care such as time and money savings, and also intangible benefits, like increased flexibility and decreased stress. Participants expressed their desire that telemental health care be a readily available option in the post-pandemic future. Maintaining accessibility to telehealth care for psychiatric patients in the future should be a priority. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04693052; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04693052
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