Telemedicine for the pediatric preoperative assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evaluating patient and provider satisfaction

Giuliana Geng-Ramos; Richa Taneja; Chaitanya Challa; Caroll Vazquez-Colon; Jessica Cronin; Ana Campos; Rachel Selekman; Md Sohel Rana; Anjna Melwani

doi:10.1016/j.pcorm.2022.100252

Telemedicine for the pediatric preoperative assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evaluating patient and provider satisfaction

Perioper Care Oper Room Manag. 2022 Jun:27:100252. doi: 10.1016/j.pcorm.2022.100252. Epub 2022 Apr 1.

Authors

Giuliana Geng-Ramos¹, Richa Taneja¹, Chaitanya Challa¹, Caroll Vazquez-Colon¹, Jessica Cronin¹, Ana Campos², Rachel Selekman³, Md Sohel Rana⁴, Anjna Melwani⁵

Affiliations

¹ Division of Anesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine, Children's National Hospital, The George Washington University, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20010, USA.
² Milken Institute of Public Health, The George Washington University, 950 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington DC 20037, USA.
³ Division of Urology, Children's National Hospital, The George Washington University, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20010, USA.
⁴ Joseph E. Robert Jr Center for Surgical Care, Children's National Hospital, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20010, USA.
⁵ Division of Hospital Medicine, Children's National Hospital, The George Washington University, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20010, USA.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges in delivering healthcare to surgical patients. To avoid delays in patient care while still minimizing COVID-19 infection risk to patients and providers, anesthesiology preoperative clinics were presented with the opportunity to implement telemedicine to assess patients' risks prior to surgery. This study explores patient and provider satisfaction with video-based telemedicine preoperative clinic visits during the COVID-19 pandemic via a patient and provider satisfaction survey. A vast majority (>93%) of patients expressed overall satisfaction with telemedicine visits. Similarly, >85% of providers agreed with the benefits of and expressed overall satisfaction with the preoperative telemedicine visits. Overall, patient and provider study participants had positive feedback in response to anesthesia preoperative telemedicine visits. Future studies could assess the preference of telemedicine to in-person visits once the fears of COVID-19 spread have been mitigated, as well as an assessment of outcomes comparing telemedicine and in-person visits.

Keywords: Anesthesia; COVID-19; Patient satisfaction; Pediatric surgery; Telemedicine.