Patients Prefer Telehealth to In-Person Assessments for Cancer Care

Published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN), results of a new study from the Moffitt Cancer Center indicate that patients ranked telehealth higher than in-person care with regard to care access and provider engagement.

Although the changes in care delivery that accompanied the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were intended to be temporary, care modalities like telehealth remain popular. This calls for the need to assess how patient and provider perceptions are changing to ensure care access and quality of care.

To gain further insight into patient opinions, researchers from the Moffitt Cancer Center conducted a survey. The survey polled 39,268 patients who participated in over 50,000 visits from April 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.

Of the total patient population, 33,318 patients had in-person visits, and 5,950 participated in telehealth visits. Researchers found that patients rated 62.5 percent of in-person visits as highly satisfying with regard to care access. For telehealth visits, this figure was 75.8 percent.

When asked about the extent to which their provider showed concern during their visit, patients rated 84.2 percent of in-person visits and 90.7 percent of telehealth visits as highly satisfying.

Further, when adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, sex, insurance, and clinic type, "telehealth visits consistently outperformed in-person visits over time regarding access and care provider concern," the study states. 

Based on this data, researchers concluded that patients rated telehealth higher than in-person care overall, and this did not change over time, indicating high satisfaction.

"Telemedicine visits can be incorporated in patients' day-to-day schedule so they can complete their appointments before or after work, or during a break. It gives them flexibility and ultimately increases access," said senior researcher Philippe E. Spiess, MD, assistant chief of surgical services at the Moffitt Cancer Center and a member of the NCCN Board of Directors, Guidelines Steering Committee, in a press release. "As care providers we should be leading the discussion and advocating on our patients' behalf for both cross-state licensing and continued reimbursements for telemedicine visits."

This is the latest survey to show that patient satisfaction is linked to telehealth visits.

Survey results from December 2022 indicated that many patients felt their medical and social concerns were addressed during telehealth visits. In the assessment, researchers asked patients about their emotions after their first encounter as well as their willingness to participate in telehealth in the future.

After noting that 60 percent of patients felt comfortable with telehealth after the first encounter and 88 percent stated willingness to participate in telehealth in the future, researchers concluded that patients were satisfied with telehealth.

The survey also showed that 63 percent of patients strongly agreed that concerns surrounding social determinants of health (SDOH) received attention during telehealth visits. This finding supported the idea of using telehealth to serve patients from underserved communities through assessments of SDOH.