JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Telemedicine is a care delivery modality that has the potential to broaden the reach and flexibility of healthcare services. In the UAE healthcare services are mainly delivered through either integrated hospitals or community clinics. It is unknown if patients' attitude and satisfaction differed between these types of healthcare systems during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective:

We aimed to explore the system-outcome relationship in the quality of telemedicine services during the COVID-19 pandemic and to describe patients’ attitude and satisfaction with telemedicine. We also aimed to identify patient- or visit-related factors contributing to the perceived quality of care and overall patient satisfaction.

Methods:

In this cross-sectional study that was conducted at Abu Dhabi healthcare centers, we invited outpatients aged ≥18 years, who completed a telemedicine visit during the COVID-19 pandemic to participate in our study. Patients’ attitude and satisfaction with telemedicine with reference to the two system types: hospital Outpatient Department (OPD) versus community clinics were assessed using a qualitative self-administered survey. Regression models were used to describe the association between patient and visit characteristics with the quality of telemedicine services, patient’s socio-demographic characteristics, and health system type.

Results:

A total of 515 patients participated in this survey. Patients’ attitude and satisfaction with telemedicine services were equally high in both system types (hospital OPD and community clinic). Video consultation was associated significantly with increased perceived usefulness of telemedicine such as: video call improves access to healthcare services (OR=3.02, 95% CI: 1.51-7.93, p=0.025), reduces waiting time and travel costs (OR= 4.89, 95%CI: 1.14-21.06, P=0.033), addresses patient’s needs (OR=2.62, 95% CI: 1.12-6.09, p= 0.026), and eases expression of medical concerns (OR= 2.15, 95% CI: 0.87-5.30, p= 0.095). Video consultation was also associated significantly with increased patient satisfaction (OR= 2.53, 95% CI: 1.02-6.24, p=0.044), and patients’ support of telemedicine use during and after the pandemic (OR= 2.86, 95%CI: 1.16-7.00, p=0.022). Surprisingly, middle aged patients were two times more likely to be satisfied with telemedicine services (OR=2.80, 95% CI: 1.28-6.16, p= 0.01), and to support the transition to telemedicine services during and after the pandemic (OR= 2.06, 95% CI:0.98-4.34, p=0.056) than any other age group.

Conclusions:

This study findings support that there is no system-outcome disparity in the quality of telemedicine services between hospital OPD and community clinics. Video consultation was associated with positive attitude and satisfaction with telemedicine services. Our findings indicate that video-based remote consulting applications are gaining traction in Abu Dhabi and may also accelerate the roll-out of video applications for remote consultation in both developed and under-developed countries.