AB033. SOH21AS156. Virtual phone call or video consultations: patient and clinician preference during COVID-19

Background: In response to COVID-19 and social distancing guidelines, healthcare services have evolved. Telehealth has been a part of this change and many services have introduced virtual telephone clinics. The HSE recently approved a video conferencing tool, ‘Attend Anywhere’, and although available it is not widely used. We have received positive feedback from patients, but only a few studies provide information on patient and clinician satisfaction of virtual consultations. We aim to validate this by assessing preferences towards virtual telephone and video consultations.

Methods: Fifty patients from the breast care clinic were included. Exclusion criteria were any new or symptomatic patients or those with a physical/intellectual incapacity. A Likert scale questionnaire was used to assess patient and clinician attitude towards ‘phone’ (PC) or ‘video’ consultations (VC).

Results: The majority of patients (64%) requested a PC rather than a VC (36%). More patients used technology regularly in the VC group (88%) than the PC group (69%), and 94% of VC patients had experience with video calls (47% PC). VC patients felt safe using ‘Attend Anywhere’ (94%), said it was ‘more personal’ than a phone call (72%) but preferred face-to-face for future consultations as they ‘liked the reassurance of a physical exam’ (78% VC; 59% PC). All clinicians felt the lack of examination in virtual clinics impacts the doctor-patient relationship and would prefer face-to-face consultations where possible.

Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate a positive patient and clinician attitude to virtual clinics, however face-to-face appointments are preferred by both groups. We will repeat this survey following COVID-19 restrictions to determine if attitudes have changed.

Keywords: Telemedicine; virtual clinic; video; COVID-19; satisfaction