Abstract
BackgroundDue to rapidly increasing rates of COVID-19 across the country, system-wide changes were needed to protect the health and safety of health care providers and consumers alike. Technology-based care has received buy-in from all participants, and the need for technological assistance has been prioritized.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to determine the initial perceptions and experiences of interprofessional behavioral health providers about shifting from traditional face-to-face care to virtual technologies (telephonic and televideo) during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA survey-based study was performed at a large, integrated medical health care system in West-Central Florida that rapidly implemented primary care provision via telephone and televideo as of March 18, 2020. A 23-item anonymous survey based on a 7-point Likert scale was developed to determine health care providers’ perceptions about telephonic and televideo care. The survey took 10 minutes to complete and was administered to 280 professionals between April 27 and May 11, 2020.ResultsIn all, 170 respondents completed the survey in entirety, among which 78.8% (134/170) of the respondents were female and primarily aged 36-55 years (89/170, 52.4%). A majority of the respondents were outpatient-based providers (159/170, 93.5%), including psychiatrists, therapists, counselors, and advanced practice nurses. Most of them (144/170, 84.7%) had used televideo for less than 1 year; they felt comfortable and satisfied with either telephonic or televideo mode and that they were able to meet the patients’ needs.ConclusionsOur survey findings suggest that health care providers valued televideo visits equally or preferred them more than telephonic visits in the domains of quality of care, technology performance, satisfaction of technology, and user acceptance.
Highlights
Since the first reported case of COVID-19 in the United States in January 2020, social distancing—a misnomer for physical distancing—has been a public health priority [1]
Owing to patient requests, health care systems have been moving toward the integration of in-person and video services to offer more points-of-service by highly skilled health care providers and to efficiently use available resources [4]
The Behavioral Health Division of this system comprised over 750,000 annual outpatient visits and 13,000 inpatient discharges across 5 counties
Summary
Since the first reported case of COVID-19 in the United States in January 2020, social distancing—a misnomer for physical distancing—has been a public health priority [1]. Declarations of public health emergencies and stay-at-home orders have made the use of telephonic and televideo care services a necessity rather than a choice, while limiting the number of outdoor interactions among the public since March 17, 2020 [2]. During this period, many health care providers worked from home to avoid the risk of exposure to the virus. Due to rapidly increasing rates of COVID-19 across the country, system-wide changes were needed to protect the health and safety of health care providers and consumers alike. Technology-based care has received buy-in from all participants, and the need for technological assistance has been prioritized
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