Teleconsultation in general practice. Overview and patients' satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Context. Teleconsultation is booming since the Covid-19 pandemic. Aims. To explore the content and process of teleconsultations in general practice. To collect patients' motivations, satisfaction and opinions. Method. Descriptive cross-sectional study using an online self-administered survey between 03-22-2021 and 05-15-2021. Survey was distributed by volunteer physicians in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes area. Results. 307 completed surveys were analysed. A majority of participants (66.7%) had an education level higher than the bachelor's degree. Teleconsultations were initiated after the first pandemic-related containment (80.1%). Satisfaction was very good. Participants considered that the physician-patient relationship (79.2%), data protection (81.8%) and access to care (76.2%) were unchanged. The quality was considered less good because of the absence of a physical examination (55.1%). Teleconsultations had an average of 1.8 motives and lasted 12.6 minutes. They were performed by the usual doctor (86.6%), via a video medium (70.4%) and without technical problems (91.2%). An additional face-to-face consultation was offered in 15.0% of cases. Respondents felt they were free to choose teleconsultation (82.1%). It was most often used to manage a symptom (41.7%) and to renew a prescription (25.7%). The main reasons for teleconsulting were convenience (50.5%), availability (33.1%) and avoiding the waiting room (27.1%). Conclusion. Teleconsultation seems to be an interesting medium that can be used for a large variety of procedures as in a face-to-face consultation. In order to optimise this service, it seems necessary to further study all its features. It would be interesting to interview particularly unsatisfied patients.