Queries and satisfaction in Telemedicine Counselling for COVID-19 in West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Telemedicine counselling service for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has an immense importance in India. Hard to reach rural areas have more skewed ratio and due to mandatory quarantine during COVID-19, availing physical consultation from doctors has become more difficult. Aim: To find out the queries of the callers in COVID-19 support cell and their satisfaction of this service. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), Kolkata in May 2021. Total 152 participants were included in the study. Data were collected by telephonic interview using a pre designed pretested interview guide. Queries of the callers to the telemedicine centre were recorded along with their demographics. Satisfaction was measured in a scale of 0-10. Results: Mean age of the patients were 44.5±17.05 years;114 (75%) callers were male and 93 (61.2%) were from rural areas of West Bengal. There were 78 (51.3%) callers who were repeat callers. The most common query {90 (59.21%)} was “when positive patients would undertake next Rapid Antigen Test (RAT)/ Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test to find out whether they were negative.” The mean satisfaction score was 6.29. Conclusions: Telemedicine services were availed by many callers from rural area. The support cell responded to queries like what drugs to be taken and home isolation duration. Majority of the callers felt satisfied after consultation, thus, indicating effective role of teleconsultation.