Pediatric Orthopedic Patients Largely Satisfied with Virtual Healthcare

The majority of pediatric orthopedic patients are satisfied with receiving care via telehealth, according to a study presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS).

For the study, researchers surveyed 1,686 patients and guardians from March 2020 to March 2021. Of this sample, 13.4 percent had virtual appointments, and 86.6 percent received in-person care.

The survey consisted of questions related to their visit experience, regardless of type. However, there were four questions given to virtual-visit only patients.

Survey results revealed an overall visit satisfaction rate of 85 percent.

Patients receiving virtual visits also reported a relatively high level of satisfaction, with 89 percent reporting ease with video communication, 86 percent saying the video connection was adequate during the visit, 90 percent reporting solid audio connection, and 77 percent reporting overall satisfaction.

"Findings of this study aligned with findings from our previously published work that demonstrated similarly favorable outcomes of telemedicine virtual visit use among pediatric spinal deformity patients," said Assem Sultan, MD, an orthopedic surgical resident at the Cleveland Clinic, in the press release. "We were able to demonstrate feasibility and utilization of virtual visits in a larger and more diverse sample of pediatric orthopedic patients."

Researchers also found that virtual visits were linked with a four-fold increase of patients reporting high satisfaction levels related to appointment scheduling.

But patients were less likely to report high satisfaction with the explanation of their condition in a virtual setting rather than an in-person setting.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth visits primarily occurred among older patients. However, as virtual healthcare gained popularity among all demographics during the public health emergency, questions arose regarding which visit setting patients preferred.

 "As the pandemic progressed, virtual visits proved to be a valuable tool to treat our pediatric patients, even those with more complex musculoskeletal conditions. Now, as the pandemic begins to shift toward the potential endemic phase, we wanted to uncover factors that orthopedic clinicians should consider when adopting virtual visits as part of the existing patient-care frameworks,” said Sultan.

As telehealth remains popular amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, providers are continuing to look for ways to enhance this type of care.

In August 2021, UPMC decided to expand its telehealth services to increase patient access to pediatric specialists. This included permitting families to access virtual care at UPMC Children’s Hospital.

Northwestern Medicine also expanded its telemedicine services for pediatric patients, allowing patients from two separate hospitals to have on-demand access to virtual pediatric services. The health system's goal was to increase telehealth utilization levels among pediatric patients and offer the convenience of not having to wait for a follow-up visit.