Copyright
©The Author(s) 2021.
World J Orthop. Jan 18, 2021; 12(1): 24-34
Published online Jan 18, 2021. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v12.i1.24
Published online Jan 18, 2021. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v12.i1.24
Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria |
Adult patients aged ≥ 18 years of age | Patients aged < 18 yr of age |
Received orthopaedic clinic telephone consultation | If other members of the family responded on patient’s behalf |
Satisfaction questionnaire completed within 48 h from telephone consultation | Unable to consent to complete satisfaction questionnaire |
Communication difficulties (verbal or auditory) as stated in patient clinical notes | |
Cognitive impairment as stated in patient clinical notes | |
If patients did not answer their telephone on two occasions to complete the satisfaction questionnaire |
Table 2 Summary of patient satisfaction levels (%)
Scale | Explanation of condition | Outcome of consultation | Answers received to all questions | Overall satisfaction | Willingness for future telephone consultations |
Very satisfied | 51 | 47 | 46 | 56 | 44 |
Satisfied | 40 | 45 | 45 | 37 | 35 |
Neutral | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
Dissatisfied | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
Very dissatisfied | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
Table 3 Free text feedback from patients
Positives | Negatives | ||
Logistical advantages | A better way to avoid coming to hospital during COVID-19 | Lack of visual feedback | More explanation of X-ray required as I could not see it |
Good and efficient way to receive results | Video conferencing would be an improvement e.g., Skype/Zoom | ||
Great service to be seen at home | Prefer F2F to show doctor the deformity | ||
Telephone consultations made the process quicker than attending the hospital for an appointment | Consultation timings | Was not expecting telephone consultation, a pre-warning text message may have helped | |
Overall Satisfaction | Very satisfied - doctor really listened and able to ask questions | No specific time given, better to have one hour slots or “window” | |
Very clear and precise | Patient confidence | Would prefer F2F for first appointment | |
Doctor was very helpful | Prefer F2F for more support with condition | ||
Doctor very friendly | Needed to guess whether exercises were being done correctly | ||
Pleasant doctor | With elderly patients important to advise to have someone accompany them on the telephone call on loudspeaker |
Table 4 P values for Fisher’s exact test in level of satisfaction between age, gender and diagnosis of upper or lower limb injuries
P value (≤ 0.05) | ||||
Age | Gender | Diagnosis of upper or lower limb injuries | ||
Question 1 | Willingness for telephone consultation in the current pandemic | 0.31 | 0.32 | > 0.99 |
Question 2 | Explanation of condition | > 0.99 | 0.09 | 0.25 |
Question 3 | Outcome of consultation | 0.71 | 0.48 | 0.25 |
Question 4 | Answers received to all questions | > 0.99 | 0.31 | 0.14 |
Question 5 | Overall satisfaction | > 0.99 | 0.11 | 0.41 |
Question 6 | Willingness for future telephone consultations | 0.81 | 0.33 | 0.43 |
Table 5 Free text suggestions from clinicians
Suggestions |
Lack of visual feedback |
Visual consultations would be a great improvement and improve quality of consultation |
Video software that will also allow sharing of clinicians’ screen would be more informative as imaging can be shown |
Workload |
Dedicated administrator for telephone consultation preparation would be useful |
Lack of examination |
Difficult to examine patients. Often reliant on family or patient’s own interpretation of examination |
Could be limited to follow ups only |
Difficult to build rapport or trust |
- Citation: Vusirikala A, Ensor D, Asokan AK, Lee AJX, Ray R, Tsekes D, Edwin J. Hello, can you hear me? Orthopaedic clinic telephone consultations in the COVID-19 era- a patient and clinician perspective. World J Orthop 2021; 12(1): 24-34
- URL: https://www.wjgnet.com/2218-5836/full/v12/i1/24.htm
- DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.5312/wjo.v12.i1.24