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Documented Reasons of Cancellation and Rescheduling of Telehealth Appointments During the Pandemic.
Sezgin, Emre; Huang, Yungui; Lin, Deborah; Ramtekkar, Ujjwal; Pauline, Lindsey; Lin, Simon.
  • Sezgin E; Research Information Solutions and Innovation, The Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
  • Huang Y; Research Information Solutions and Innovation, The Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
  • Lin D; Research Information Solutions and Innovation, The Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
  • Ramtekkar U; Department of Psychiatry, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
  • Pauline L; Department of Psychiatry, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
  • Lin S; Division of Clinical Therapies, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Telemed J E Health ; 27(10): 1143-1150, 2021 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-998265
ABSTRACT
Background and

Objective:

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the use of telehealth around the world. The aim is to minimize health care service disruption as well as reducing COVID-19 exposure. However, one of the major operational concerns is cancellations and rescheduling (C/Rs). C/Rs may create additional burden and cost to the patient, provider, and the health system. Our aim is to understand the reasons for C/Rs of the telehealth session after the scheduled start time. Materials and

Methods:

We reviewed electronic health records (EHRs) to identify the C/R reasons for behavioral health and speech language pathology departments. Documented C/Rs in the medical charts were identified from EHR by using a keyword-based and Natural Language Processing (NLP)-supported EHR search engine. From the search results, we randomly selected 200 notes and conducted a thematic analysis.

Results:

We identified four themes explaining C/R reasons. Most frequent theme was "technicality" (47, 36%), followed by "engagement" (34, 25%), "scheduling" (31, 24%), and "unspecified" (20, 15%). The findings showed that technical reasons are the leading cause of C/Rs, constituting 36% of the cases (95% confidence interval [CI] 29-43%). Notably, "engagement" constituted a sizeable 25% (95% CI 19-31%) of C/Rs, as a result of the inability to engage a patient to complete the telehealth session.

Conclusions:

The study shows that engagement is one of the new challenges to the pediatric telehealth visits. Future studies of new engagement models are needed for the success of telehealth. Our findings will help fill the literature gaps and may help with enhancing the digital experience for both caregivers and providers, reducing wasted time and resources due to preventable C/Rs, improving clinical operation efficiency, and treatment adherence.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Speech-Language Pathology / Telemedicine / COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Prognostic study / Randomized controlled trials Limits: Child / Humans Language: English Journal: Telemed J E Health Journal subject: Medical Informatics / Health Services Year: 2021 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: Tmj.2020.0454

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Speech-Language Pathology / Telemedicine / COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Prognostic study / Randomized controlled trials Limits: Child / Humans Language: English Journal: Telemed J E Health Journal subject: Medical Informatics / Health Services Year: 2021 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: Tmj.2020.0454