JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The use of telemedicine has increased dramatically through the COVID-19 pandemic. While data is available about patient satisfaction with healthcare through telemedicine, little is known about the immigrant patient experience. We hypothesized that immigrant patients would prefer live visits as well as have higher ratings for interpersonal communication during live visits over telemedicine. We also expected that other satisfaction category ratings would be similar between immigrant and nonimmigrant patients. Patients seen by four Internal Medicine providers in both a live and telemedicine setting were surveyed. Patients seen via live visits were given a paper copy of the survey at the beginning of the visit and the same survey was administered by follow-up phone call for telemedicine visits. Surveys were administered in English, Spanish or Arabic. The survey consisted of 9 questions on a satisfaction scale of 1-5 assessing satisfaction under the categories of access to care, interpersonal interaction, quality of care and next visit preference. An additional question assessed reasons for next visit type preferences. Survey data were collected from 115 televisits and 108 live visits. These responses came from 60 immigrant and 163 non-immigrant patients. Across both patient populations, satisfaction with access to care, interpersonal interaction, and quality of care was universally high with no significant difference between patient groups. More common reasons for non-immigrants to prefer televisits included convenience. Immigrant patients more often prioritized time with the provider, some citing an advantage of not having to navigate the office and feeling as though they had the provider's undivided attention. Patients in both groups who preferred live visits cited visit quality as a driving factor of visit type selection. While satisfaction was equally high for both telemedicine and live visits across immigrant and non-immigrant populations, differences in patient satisfaction priorities arose and may suggest opportunities to minimize health equity barriers.