Virtual surgical consultation during the COVID-19 pandemic: a patient-oriented, cross-sectional study using telephone interviews

Kyle Irvine; Marissa Alarcon; Heather Dyck; Barbara Martin; Tracey Carr; Gary Groot

doi:10.9778/cmajo.20210159

Virtual surgical consultation during the COVID-19 pandemic: a patient-oriented, cross-sectional study using telephone interviews

CMAJ Open. 2022 Nov 29;10(4):E1008-E1016. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20210159. Print 2022 Oct-Dec.

Authors

Kyle Irvine¹, Marissa Alarcon², Heather Dyck², Barbara Martin², Tracey Carr², Gary Groot²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery (Irvine), University of Saskatchewan; Clinical Research Support Unit (Alarcon), University of Saskatchewan; Saskatchewan Centre for Patient-Oriented Research (Dyck, Martin); Department of Community Health and Epidemiology (Carr, Groot), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask. kyi871@usask.ca.
² Department of Surgery (Irvine), University of Saskatchewan; Clinical Research Support Unit (Alarcon), University of Saskatchewan; Saskatchewan Centre for Patient-Oriented Research (Dyck, Martin); Department of Community Health and Epidemiology (Carr, Groot), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask.

Abstract

Background: Health care delivery shifted rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereby virtual consultations replaced many face-to-face interactions. We sought to gather patient perspectives on their experiences with virtual surgical consultation, the advantages and disadvantages of this delivery method and their overall satisfaction with virtual appointments.

Methods: We conducted a patient-oriented, cross-sectional study. Adult patients (age > 18 yr) who had a virtual consultation with a participating general surgeon in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, from April to May 2020 were eligible. We conducted telephone interviews using open- and close-ended questions. We used thematic analysis to determine themes from the qualitative data. As research team members, 2 patient partners were involved in identifying priorities, developing the research question, designing research methods, analyzing data and disseminating findings. We analyzed and presented quantitative data descriptively.

Results: We interviewed 45 participants from 7 general surgery practices; the average age was 62 years. Most participants lived outside Saskatoon and had virtual follow-up appointments. The 3 themes related to advantages of virtual consultations were convenience, cost savings and decreased exposure to pathogens. The 4 themes related to their disadvantages were that they were not as personal, the surgeon was not able to perform a physical examination, and there were issues with scheduling and issues with technology. Most participants were satisfied with the care they received (n = 41) and would be willing to use virtual consultation in the future (n = 31).

Interpretation: We found that virtual consultations are an effective and efficient way to deliver surgical care but are not appropriate for every situation and cannot completely replace face-to-face interactions. Our study identified the advantages and disadvantages of virtual surgical consultation to help better guide the delivery of virtual care in the future.

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Middle Aged
Pandemics
Referral and Consultation
Telephone