Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jan 18, 2021; 12(1): 24-34
Published online Jan 18, 2021. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v12.i1.24
Hello, can you hear me? Orthopaedic clinic telephone consultations in the COVID-19 era- a patient and clinician perspective
Anuhya Vusirikala, David Ensor, Ajay K Asokan, Alvin JX Lee, Ravi Ray, Dimitrios Tsekes, John Edwin
Anuhya Vusirikala, David Ensor, Ajay K Asokan, Ravi Ray, Dimitrios Tsekes, John Edwin, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Basildon University Hospital, Basildon SS16 5NL, Essex, United Kingdom
Alvin JX Lee, Medical Oncology, UCL Cancer Institute, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Vusirikala A and Ensor D performed a literature search, created the data collection proformas, collected the data, wrote the manuscript; Asokan AK collected the data, interpreted the data and wrote the results section; Lee AJX performed statistical analysis on the data; Ray R and Tsekes D edited the manuscript; Edwin J designed the study, provided guidance on data collection proformas, edited the manuscript; all authors provided final approval for the paper to be published.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed by the Research and Ethics Committee at the Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust who felt this study did not require ethical approval.
Informed consent statement: All subjects involved in the study gave their informed consent verbally.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors had any conflicts of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at anuhya.vusirikala@nhs.net. Participants consent was not obtained but the presented data are anonymized and risk of identification is low.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement- checklist of items, and the manuscript were prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement- checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Anuhya Vusirikala, MBChB, Surgeon, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Basildon University Hospital, Nethermayne, Basildon SS16 5NL, Essex, United Kingdom. anuhya.vusirikala@nhs.net
Received: October 18, 2020
Peer-review started: October 18, 2020
First decision: November 18, 2020
Revised: December 2, 2020
Accepted: December 16, 2020
Article in press: December 16, 2020
Published online: January 18, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in seismic changes in healthcare delivery. As a result of this, hospital footfall required to be reduced due to increased risk of transmission of infection. To ensure patients can safely access healthcare, we introduced orthopaedic clinic telephone consultations in our busy district general hospital.

AIM

To investigate patients’ and clinicians’ perspective of telephone consultations during COVID-19, and whether this method of consultation could be a viable option in the post- pandemic future.

METHODS

This is a single centre, prospective study conducted in a busy National Health Service district general hospital. In May 2020, 100 non- consecutive adult patients were contacted by independent investigators within 48 h of their orthopaedic clinic telephone consultation to complete a telephone satisfaction questionnaire. The questions assessed satisfaction regarding various aspects of the consultation including overall satisfaction and willingness to use this approach long term. Satisfaction and perspective of 25 clinicians conducting these telephone consultations was also assessed via an online survey tool.

RESULTS

93% of patients were overall satisfied with telephone consultations and 79% were willing to continue this method of consultation post- pandemic. Patients found telephone consultations to reduce personal cost and inconvenience associated with attending a hospital appointment. 72% of clinicians reported overall satisfaction with this service and 80% agreed that telephone consultations should be used in the future. The majority found it less laborious in time and administration in comparison to face to face consultations. Patients and clinicians expressed their desire for video consultations as a method of further improving their experience with remote consultations.

CONCLUSION

Our study has shown that telephone consultations are a safe and rapid method of adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving the aim of reducing hospital footfall. This method of consultation has resulted in immense clinician and patient satisfaction. Our findings suggest that this tool has benefits in post pandemic healthcare delivery. It has also highlighted that telephone consultations can act as a steppingstone to the introduction of the more complex platform of video consulting.

Keywords: COVID-19, Telephone consultation, Orthopaedic clinic, Patient satisfaction, Patient perspective, Clinician perspective

Core Tip: Telephone consultations are a safe and rapid method of adaptation to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, achieving the aim of reducing hospital footfall. This method of consultation has resulted in immense patient and clinician satisfaction, suggesting that this tool has benefits in the post pandemic healthcare delivery. Telephone consultations can also act as a steppingstone to the safe introduction of the more complex platform of video consulting.