Increased satisfaction of maternity hospital staff involved in fetal telediagnosis.

Abstract

Questionnaires were sent to 14 maternity hospital staff members for qualitative assessment at the start of fetal telediagnosis and at the end of the study using a five-point Likert scale: 5, I strongly think so; 4, I think so; 3, I can't decide; 2, I don't think so; 1, I never think so. Ten questionnaires were returned to us (71%). The results showed that the staff reported a significant increase in confidence in performing fetal cardiac screening (score 2.3 at start, 3.4 at study completion; P = 0.034), the rate of score increase rose with the number of telediagnoses (r = 0.72, P < 0.05), feedback from a specialist was very useful (4.4 and 4.9, respectively), and real-time image transmission was preferred over recorded images (score 3.7 vs 2.4, respectively; P = 0.042). The excellent educational effect of telemedicine is useful for staff members to improve their skills while nurturing their motivation, leading to the promotion of fetal cardiac screening in regional areas.