Purpose: The primary purpose of this quality improvement project was to measure and subsequently improve patient satisfaction with video-based telemedicine (VBT).
Background: Since April 1, 2015, the majority of stem cell transplant patients referred to the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System from throughout the United States were evaluated using VBT. Reduction in time to evaluation and overall cost savings have been well documented. However, we have never evaluated patient satisfaction with the VBT process.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective record review and determined that (n = 31) patients were evaluated during FY 2016. We found that (n = 16) patients were deceased, and (n = 4) patients were critically ill and unable to complete the survey. We developed and mailed a 12 question anonymous survey, to the remaining (n = 111). Veterans evaluated using VBT during the selected time frame. Questions were framed with a standard Likert scale from 1-4, with 4 being excellent and 1 being poor. We considered a score greater than 3.5 to translate to a high level of satisfaction. A ranking of less than 2.5
was equated with low satisfaction. Surveys were mailed to the patient’s address as listed in CPRS on March 6, 2017 and collected through April 10, 2017. We collected demographic and disease data on all patients surveyed.
Data Analysis: There was a 62.1% response rate (n = 69) in terms of surveys returned within the specified time frame. We tabulated average patient satisfaction data based on numeric responses to each question. We calculated demographic data including age, sex, disease, mileage from the patient’s VA to transplant center.
Results: Overall rating of care during the VBT evaluation was very good at 92.5% (3.7) with no category rated less than 3.4 (85%). Average age of the patient in the sample was 61.45 years, predominately male (n = 106), most prevalent disease was multiple myeloma (n = 53) average distance from transplant center; 559 miles. Total round-trip mileage saved by VBT 124,278 miles.
Conclusions: Patients have a high degree of satisfaction with VBT in the pre transplant evaluation setting.
