JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of video consultation (VC) in primary care has expanded considerably in many countries. VC and other telehealth formats are often touted as a solution to improved health care access with numerous studies showing high satisfaction with this care format among health professionals and patients. However, operationalization and measurement of patient satisfaction with VC varies across studies and often lacks consideration of contextual factors that may influence satisfaction.

Objective:

To develop and pilot a comprehensive and evidence-based questionnaire for assessing patient satisfaction with VC in general practice.

Methods:

The vCare Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (the vCare-PSQ) was developed according to the COSMIN guidelines. To achieve our overall objective, we pursued three aims: (1) a validation analysis of an existing patient satisfaction scale, (2) an assessment of extrinsic contextual factors that may impact on patient satisfaction, and (3) an assessment of pertinent intrinsic and relational satisfaction correlates (e.g., health anxiety, IT-literacy, trust in the GP, convenience). For validation purposes, the questionnaire was filled out by a convenience sample of 188 Danish adults who had attended at least one VC.

Results:

The vCare-PSQ demonstrated good assessment capabilities. Patient satisfaction appeared to be contingent on IT-literacy and patient trust in the GP, as well as a number of contextual pros and cons.

Conclusions:

With the development of the vCare-PSQ, our findings may contribute to an enhanced methodological approach to assessing patient satisfaction with VC. We hope that the vCare-PSQ format may be useful for future research and implementation efforts regarding VC in a general practice setting.