Standardizing Quality of Virtual Urgent Care: Using Standardized Patients in a Unique Experiential Onboarding Program
Daniel J. Sartori, Viraj Lakdawala, Heather B. Levitt, Jason A. Sherwin, Paul Testa, Sondra Zabar
Abstract
Introduction: Virtual urgent care (VUC) provides real-time evaluation, triage, and treatment of low-acuity medical problems; however, VUC physicians have varying levels of telemedicine training. We created a workplace-based experiential onboarding program that deployed standardized patients (SPs) into a VUC clinic to evaluate and deliver feedback to independently practicing physicians, providing quality assurance and identifying areas for improvement. Methods: SPs evaluated communication, disease-specific, and telemedicine skills by observing behaviors. We surveyed participants to evaluate the program. Results: = 34%) well done-highlighting specific behaviors most ripe for improvement. All queried participants indicated that this simulation improved communication and telemedicine skills. Discussion: This workplace-based experiential onboarding program uncovered knowledge gaps within telemedicine skills and patient education domains. Identification of these gaps can help drive new virtual care curricula.