AB065. SOH21AS213. Patient satisfaction with virtual fracture clinic (VFC)

Background: Virtual fracture clinics (VFCs) were first established in Glasgow in 2011. Since this time, they have spread across the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland. In University Hospital Galway (UHG), our VFC was first established in July 2020. We wanted to see that patient satisfaction levels, after this introduction, were maintained.

Methods: A standardised, peer reviewed combination of patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient reported experience measures (PREMs) was used as our questionnaire. This questionnaire was distributed to 32 patients who attended traditional fracture clinic, over a course of 4 weeks, prior to the introduction of the VFC. We then distributed 76 questionnaires to VFC patients over a course of 4 weeks, via mail. All participants were first time presenters and were over the age of 16. Some study participants required a follow up phone-call. The results of the questionnaires were compared using Minitab statistical analysis programme. The test of equality between the groups was Wilcoxon-Sign test.

Results: Our response rates were 100% (traditional) vs. 50% (VFC), resulting in a total of 65 respondents (32 traditional, 33 VFC). There were no statistically significant differences between the groups with respect to all the questions from the validated questionnaire.

Conclusions: We analysed satisfaction levels in patients attending a traditional fracture clinic and those attending a VFC, using a peer reviewed, validated and unique questionnaire. This information is key going forward in the conservative/non-operative management of fractures in an outpatient setting and reducing foot fall in clinics, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Keywords: Virtual fracture clinic (VFCs); satisfaction; telemedicine; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); patient reported outcome measure (PROMs); patient reported experience measure (PREMs)