Improved Clinic Attendance Rates With Introduction of Telehealth in a Tertiary Adult Congenital Heart Disease Clinic

ABSTRACT

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has paved the way for the introduction of telehealth clinic consultations. Objectives: To examine the impact of the introduction of telehealth/telephone consultation in the COVID-19 era on clinic attendance rates in an adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) clinic. Methods: Single centre audit study to compare clinic attendance rates in a large tertiary ACHD clinic over a 12-month period immediately pre-telehealth/telephone (3/5/19-17/3/20) and post-telehealth/telephone (24/3/20-2/3/21). The overall fail to attend rate for the pre-telehealth/telephone and post-telehealth/telephone periods were compared using a chi-squared test. The ACHD clinic is held once a week except for one week per month. Patients receive lifelong follow-up and are reviewed on an annual basis, on average. Results: In the pre-telehealth/telephone period, there were 409 failures to attend for 1937 clinic bookings resulting in a 21.1% (409/1937) failure rate. In the post-telehealth/telephone period, there were 215 failures to attend for 1594 clinic bookings resulting in a 13.5% (215/1594) failure rate. There was a significant reduction in the fail to attend rate in the post-telehealth/telephone period compared with the pre-telehealth/telephone period (p<0.00001). Further research is currently underway to characterise (including geographical demographics) the patients now engaged due to telehealth/telephone consultation and those who still fail to attend. Conclusions: Clinic attendance rates in a tertiary adult congenital heart disease clinic significantly improved after introduction of telehealth/telephone consultation in the COVID-19 era. Further qualitative research is required to determine patient and clinician preferences for the use of telehealth in the ACHD clinic setting.