A 12-Month Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess the Impact of Telemedicine on Patient Experience and Care Continuity

Ruchi Garg; Akshi Walecha; Vinay Goyal; Aditi Mehra; Mayank Badkur; Ravi Gaur; Indra Singh Choudhary; Yatin Talwar

doi:10.7759/cureus.53201

A 12-Month Randomized Controlled Trial to Assess the Impact of Telemedicine on Patient Experience and Care Continuity

Cureus. 2024 Jan 29;16(1):e53201. doi: 10.7759/cureus.53201. eCollection 2024 Jan.

Authors

Ruchi Garg¹, Akshi Walecha², Vinay Goyal³, Aditi Mehra⁴, Mayank Badkur⁵, Ravi Gaur⁶, Indra Singh Choudhary⁵, Yatin Talwar¹

Affiliations

¹ Hospital Administration, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, IND.
² Anesthesia, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, IND.
³ Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mumbai, IND.
⁴ Hospital Administration, Government Medical College & Hospital, Chandigarh, IND.
⁵ General Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, IND.
⁶ Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, IND.

Abstract

Background: Telemedicine is the use of electronic information to communicate technologies to provide and support healthcare when distance separates the participants. Satisfaction and engagement of patients are key resource indicators for any healthcare setup and healthcare provider for evolving the care continuum (a system that provides a comprehensive range of health services so that care can evolve with the patient over time) and ensuring continuous quality improvement in the systems. As the latest remarkable strategy to connect with patients for consultations and follow-up, telemedicine has been of pivotal importance, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), where medicinal services utilize digital sound, video, and information interchanges to remotely access and provide care.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was planned during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic from April 2021 to April 2022 to assess the impact of telemedicine in essential healthcare delivery by super specialty tertiary care healthcare setup, which is also a medical college, by three consultants and a physiotherapist.

Results: There was a significant improvement in satisfaction scores and an improvement in the approach of patients towards telemedicine was observed. Various other parameters, like readmission compliance with medications and a reduction in ED times, were also observed. Finally, clinical endpoints were captured, and the correlation between readmission and medicine adherence was found to be strongly correlated (r = 0.9). A p-value of the reduction in utilization times of ED (emergency department), readmission, and medicine adherence was found to be highly significant Conclusions: Telemedicine is the need of the hour and is now an essential part of healthcare. Its acceptance post-COVID-19 pandemic and adaptability into existing healthcare setups would deliver fruitful results.

Keywords: economics; health care; health services; health services research; outcome assessment; statistics & numerical data; telemedicine.