scholarly journals Potential Benefits and Drawbacks of Virtual Clinics in General Surgery: Pilot Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Rutherford ◽  
Roghinio Noray ◽  
Caolán Ó HEarráin ◽  
Kevin Quinlan ◽  
Aisling Hegarty ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Escalating demand for specialist health care puts considerable demand on hospital services. Technology offers a means by which health care providers may increase the efficiency of health care delivery. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to conduct a pilot study of the feasibility, benefits, and drawbacks of a virtual clinic (VC) in the general surgical service of a busy tertiary center. METHODS Patient satisfaction with current care and attitudes to VC were surveyed prospectively in the general surgical outpatient department (OPD; n=223). A subset of patients who had undergone endoscopy and day surgery were recruited to follow-up in a VC and subsequently surveyed with regard to their satisfaction (20/243). Other outcomes measured included a comparison of consultation times in traditional and virtual outpatient settings and financial cost to both patients and the institution. RESULTS Almost half of the patients reported barriers to prospective use of VCs. However, within the cohort who had been followed-up in the VC, satisfaction was higher than the traditional OPD (100% as compared with 187/223, 83.9%). Significant savings in both time (<italic>P</italic>=.003) and financial costs to patients and the institution were found. CONCLUSIONS For an appropriately selected group of patients, VCs offer a viable alternative to traditional OPD. This alternative can improve both patient satisfaction and efficiency of patient care.

10.2196/12491 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. e12491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Rutherford ◽  
Roghinio Noray ◽  
Caolán Ó hEarráin ◽  
Kevin Quinlan ◽  
Aisling Hegarty ◽  
...  

Background Escalating demand for specialist health care puts considerable demand on hospital services. Technology offers a means by which health care providers may increase the efficiency of health care delivery. Objective The aim of this study was to conduct a pilot study of the feasibility, benefits, and drawbacks of a virtual clinic (VC) in the general surgical service of a busy tertiary center. Methods Patient satisfaction with current care and attitudes to VC were surveyed prospectively in the general surgical outpatient department (OPD; n=223). A subset of patients who had undergone endoscopy and day surgery were recruited to follow-up in a VC and subsequently surveyed with regard to their satisfaction (20/243). Other outcomes measured included a comparison of consultation times in traditional and virtual outpatient settings and financial cost to both patients and the institution. Results Almost half of the patients reported barriers to prospective use of VCs. However, within the cohort who had been followed-up in the VC, satisfaction was higher than the traditional OPD (100% as compared with 187/223, 83.9%). Significant savings in both time (P=.003) and financial costs to patients and the institution were found. Conclusions For an appropriately selected group of patients, VCs offer a viable alternative to traditional OPD. This alternative can improve both patient satisfaction and efficiency of patient care.


Author(s):  
Priti Agarwal ◽  
Romy Biswas

Background: Patient satisfaction is a means of measuring the effectiveness of health care delivery. This serves as a means of improvement among health care providers to give an acceptable level of patient satisfaction. Aims and Objectives: To assess the level of satisfaction and reasons of dissatisfaction among patients regarding health care services in a rural hospital of Darjeeling District, West Bengal.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was done on 110 patients with the help of PSQ-18 questionnaire. The samples were drawn by systematic random sampling            .Results: The overall mean satisfaction score was 3.57 and S.D. ±0.69. The mean score was highest in general satisfaction domain which was found to be 3.76 with S.D ± 1.08 and lowest in time spent with doctor where mean score was 2.92 and S.D. ±1.07. 69.3% of the patients were satisfied with the services offered by the hospital. The time spent by the doctor with the patient was less and this was the major reason of dissatisfaction.Conclusions: More than half of the patients were satisfied with the services provided by the hospital. The findings of the study can facilitate the development of targeted, objectively prioritized programs for the improvement and advancement of health care delivery systems. 


Author(s):  
Chithra Boovaragasamy ◽  
Seetharaman Narayanan

Background: Patient satisfaction is a crucial component of the health care system in today’s competitive modern era. There is a limited literature describing the patient satisfaction on AYUSH care and therefore this study was undertaken to assess the satisfaction about facilities, healthcare providers and treatment among the patients attending selected AYUSH-attached PHCs in rural Puducherry.Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among the patients who attended AYUSH clinics at 4 selected PHCs of Puducherry over a period of one year. Personal Interviews using semi-structured pretested proforma was conducted for capturing information on socio-demographic variables, satisfaction regarding the facilities and health care providers. Telephonic interviews were conducted two weeks after the centre-based personal interviews, to assess the patients’ treatment satisfaction levels.Results: Out of the 584 patients interviewed, 71.23% rated as very good/excellent their interaction with the healthcare providers, with regards to satisfaction about the infrastructure facilities, the proportion rating very good/excellent ranged from 64.47% to 93.93% across the different AYUSH PHCs.Conclusions: Overall satisfaction about the quality of services and treatment was good among the patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonali Banwait ◽  
Madhu Gupta

Introduction: Patient satisfaction is an important goal of health-care services and involves various aspects health-care delivery. Dissatisfaction expressed by patients’ compromises health-care delivery taking a toll on the both human resources and infrastructure. Perioperative care is an important aspect of healthcare delivery. Various validated questionnaires have been constructed to evaluate patient satisfaction. We undertook a study to measure perioperative patient satisfaction using Leiden perioperative care patient satisfaction questionnaire. Objectives : The aim of this study was to assess perioperative patient satisfaction using a validated and structured questionnaire. Methods We conducted this prospective cross-sectional observational study with Leiden perioperative satisfaction questionnaire translated to Hindi. The questionnaire had a total of 39 questions covering various dimensions such as information provided, side effects, fear and concern, staff-patient relationship, professional competence, and services received. Results: Our results showed almost equal satisfaction among males and females. Demographic factors did not play a major role in patient satisfaction. Vomiting was the most common side effect observed in both general and regional anesthesia followed by hunger, which resulted in dissatisfaction. However, staff-patient communication and relationship with regard to information received by patient and fear and concern about surgery and anesthesia resulted in dissatisfaction. Conclusions: Our study highlighted the communication barrier between health-care professionals and patients resulting in dissatisfaction. Thus, health-care providers need to be more sensitive to the emotional and mental health if the patients in the perioperative period.


2015 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-76
Author(s):  
Ludmiła Marcinowicz ◽  
Renata Sierżantowicz ◽  
Agnieszka Dudzik ◽  
Jolanta Sawicka-Powierza ◽  
Zbysław Grajek ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction. Patient satisfaction surveys are still popular tools for obtaining feedback on the quality of health care. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of data to indicate whether health care providers even want patients to assess the quality of care delivered. Neither it is certain whether patients are interested in participating in such surveys. Aim. To present and compare the perspectives of doctors, nurses, and patients on the validity of health care customer satisfaction surveys. Material and methods. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The questionnaires were administered to doctors, nurses and patients in three hospitals of different sizes (small, medium, and large), all in the north-east of Poland. Each sample group was given 200 questionnaires; responses were received from 95 doctors (47.5%), 190 nurses (95%), and 182 patients (91%), and included in the final analyses. Results. Most respondents (doctors - 64.2%; nurses - 61.6%; patients - 87.4%) answered ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Do you think that patients should evaluate the quality of health care?’ Analysis of data allowed to identify the following main reasons why patients should evaluate the quality of health care: 1. to enhance the quality of care; 2. to recognise patients as evaluators; 3. to motivate providers to work more efficiently; and 4. to emphasise the impact of evaluation on a core value, i.e. health. Doctors and nurses outlined reasons why they did not advocate conducting patient satisfaction surveys: satisfaction surveys are redundant; negative evaluations; unwillingness to be evaluated by patients; satisfaction surveys hamper effective work with patients; surveys are not objective; survey results are not communicated to providers. Conclusions. Patient satisfaction surveys are desirable tools for evaluating the quality of health care delivery despite the fact that they frequently raise concerns amongst providers and patients. There is, therefore, a definite need for providers to experience the benefits of measuring patient satisfaction. Another important practical implication is that patients need to be convinced that their opinions do matter and contribute to improving the quality of services.


1997 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra K. Glazier

Discovering the genetic basis of a particular disease is not only of great interest to the medical community; private health insurers are also anxiously awaiting the results of genetic linkage studies. Apart from the scientific value of DNA studies, the results of genetic linkage research are relevant to health care delivery in two principal ways. First, identifying the genetic origin of a disease may allow doctors to detect the disease earlier. If doctors know that an individual is genetically predisposed to a particular disease, then health care providers can increase screening efforts and watch for early symptoms. Second, if an individual has a genetic predisposition to a particular disease, health care providers may employ preventive or “prophylactic" measures to reduce or eliminate the risk of developing the disease or condition to which the individual is genetically predisposed. Genetic linkage studies will soon allow more individuals to learn of their own genetic predispositions to certain diseases. Currently genetic predisposition tests (both pedigrees of family history and DNA analysis) can indicate that an individual is at high risk for developing a disease.


1985 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-225
Author(s):  
Karla Kelly

AbstractUntil recently, physicians have been the primary health care providers in the United States. In response to the rising health care costs and public demand of the past decade, allied health care providers have challenged this orthodox structure of health care delivery. Among these allied health care providers are nurse practitioners, who have attempted to expand traditional roles of the registered nurse.This article focuses on the legal issues raised by several major obstacles to the expansion of nurse practitioner services: licensing restrictions, third party reimbursement policies, and denial of access to medical facilities and physician back-up services. The successful judicial challenges to discriminatory practices against other allied health care providers will be explored as a solution to the nurse practitioners’ dilemma.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 346-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Webber ◽  
N Edwards ◽  
I D Graham ◽  
C Amaratunga ◽  
I Gaboury ◽  
...  

Cambodia has one of the highest prevalence rates of HIV in Asia and is scaling up HIV testing. We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 358 health care providers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to assess readiness for voluntary testing and counselling for HIV. We measured HIV knowledge and attitudes, and predictors of intentions to take a sexual history using the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Over 90% of health care providers correctly answered knowledge questions about HIV transmission, but their attitudes were often not positive towards people living with HIV. The Theory of Planned Behaviour constructs explained 56% of the variance in intention to take a sexual history: the control providers perceive they have over taking a sexual history was the strongest contributor (51%), while social pressure explained a further 3%. Attitudes about taking a sexual history did not contribute to intention. Interventions with Cambodian health care providers should focus on improving skills in sexual history-taking.


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