DETERMINANTS OF INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE PATIENT SATISFACTION AFTER TRANSITION TO VIRTUAL VISITS

Abstract

IntroductionDue to COVID-19, traditional inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patient and provider office-based interactions have shifted to telemedicine platforms to address the ongoing healthcare needs of this population. As telehealth services continue to expand, a better understanding of patient satisfaction is required in order to optimize the patient experience for IBD patients.MethodsWe analyzed patient satisfaction data from a metropolitan tertiary hospital’s IBD outpatient clinic. Three questions were compared between in-person and virtual visits: “Did this provider listen carefully to you?”, “Did this provider seem to know the important information about your medical history?”, and “Using any number from 0 to 10, where 0 is the worst provider possible and 10 is the best provider possible, what number would you rate this provider?” We performed Fisher’s exact tests to analyze differences in top-box satisfaction scores between in-person and virtual visits. A qualitative analysis of open-ended questions was performed to identify key satisfaction themes.ResultsWe collected satisfaction data from 309 in-person medical visits and 202 telehealth visits. Top-box satisfaction scores for provider listening and provider medical history decreased overall from in-person to virtual visits, while overall provider ratings remained the same (Figure 1). Decreases were larger among males than among females for both provider listening and provider knowledge (Table 1). After excluding patients who reported problems with the video connection or video quality, no statistically significant changes in top-box scores were found between in-person and telehealth visits (Figure 1). Open-ended answers where overwhelmingly positive, but care coordination issues and technical problems were perceived as barriers.Figure 1.Top-box scores for patient satisfaction questions for in-person visits, virtual visits, and virtual visits without problems with the video quality or ease of video connection.Table 2.Top-box ratings for the different satisfaction questions and visit settings within different demographic subpopulations.DiscussionWe identified a decrease in patient satisfaction with telehealth visits compared to in-person visits, particularly among males. This decrease was not observed after adjusting for those experiencing technical issues with their visit. Efforts to improve telehealth technology platforms, patient preparation for telehealth visits, and provider education regarding handling technology glitches during a visit may help improve overall patient satisfaction with virtual IBD visits.