Clinician Experience with Telemedicine at a Safety-net Hospital Network during COVID-19: A Cross-sectional Survey
Anjana E. Sharma, Elaine C. Khoong, Malini A. Nijagal, Courtney R. Lyles, George Su, Triveni DeFries, Urmimala Sarkar, Delphine S. Tuot
Abstract
Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic prompted unprecedented expansion of telemedicine services. We sought to describe clinician experiences providing telemedicine to publicly-insured, low-income patients during COVID-19. Methods: Online survey of ambulatory clinicians in an urban safety-net hospital system, conducted May 28 2020-July 14 2020. Results: Among 311 participants (response rate 48.3%), 34.7% (N=108/311) practiced in primary/urgent care, 37.0% (N=115/311) medical specialty and 7.7% (N=24/311) surgical clinics. 87.8% (273/311) had conducted telephone visits, 26% (81/311) video. Participants reported observing both technical and non-technical patient barriers. Clinicians reported concerns about the diagnostic safety of telephone (58.9%, 129/219) vs video (35.3%, 24/68). However, clinician comfort with telemedicine was high (89.3% (216/242) for telephone, 91.0% (61/67) for video), with many clinicians (220/239 or 92.1% telephone, 60/66 or 90.9% video) planning to continue telemedicine after COVID-19. Conclusions: Clinicians in a safety-net healthcare system report high comfort with and intention to continue telemedicine after the pandemic, despite patient challenges and safety concerns.