Virtual Care Visits Improve Patient Satisfaction, Engagement Levels

July 12, 2021 - Patient satisfaction levels can help payers and providers view telehealth as a reliable option for healthcare delivery. And in a recent Cleveland Clinic study, researchers found that patients are just as satisfied with virtual visits as they are with in-person care visits.

The survey was distributed to 426 patients who had attended a virtual care visit between June 21 and July 12 in 2017. It sought to collect data on overall patient satisfaction levels, comfort and ease using technology, and patient-clinician engagement. 

Focusing on relationship-centered care measures allowed researchers to understand how communication and emotions can impact a patient’s experience with a clinician.

The survey asked patients about convenience, how the virtual visit compared to an in-person visit, and the likelihood of using virtual care again. More than 80 percent of patients agreed or strongly agreed that their virtual visit was as good as an in-person visit, with 53.2 percent indicating that the experience was better than an in-person visit.

The majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the virtual visit made it easy to get the care they needed and the visit saved them time (90.9 percent and 91.9 percent, respectively). Most of the patients (92.9 percent) responded that they would attend a virtual visit again for a healthcare need. The average overall satisfaction score, using the Likert scale, was 4.4 out of 5.

When asked what they liked most about their virtual visit, more than one in three patients referenced the convenience and the fact that they didn’t have to travel and could stay at home for their appointment.

The average score for technology experience during virtual care visits was 4.6 out of 5, researchers found. Most of the patients (93.3 percent) indicated that the platform was easy to use during their visit and 95.8 percent reported that they felt comfortable using the technology. However, one in three patients thought the user interface could be improved.

Some patients reported experiencing technical difficulties during their visit, which was linked to lower overall satisfaction levels. 

Interestingly, patients also tended to feel more comfortable during their visit if they hadn’t had any prior interaction with the clinician, the study noted.

The survey’s patient-clinician engagement questions focused on the patients’ emotions during the visit and how well the clinician communicated with them. Overall, this section scored a 4.6 out of 5, furthering the notion that virtual care can yield beneficial patient experiences. 

More than 90 percent of patients agreed that their clinician was interested in them as a person and felt the clinician fully understood their healthcare needs. Nearly 95 percent of respondents said the clinician helped them create a plan to address their health concern going forward and that they walked away from the visit understanding how to accomplish that plan.

The researchers noted other circumstances that contributed to higher patient satisfaction in their study. For example, virtual visits with a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant were more likely to lead to higher rates of patient-clinician engagement than visits with a family physician.

Almost a quarter of the study participants were employees of Cleveland Clinic and were on the hospital’s employee health insurance plan. Those patients had higher odds of patient-clinician engagement compared to nonemployee participants.

This study adds patient experience and satisfaction to the growing list of factors that figure into comparing telehealth and in-person care. Telehealth use for chronic disease treatment and post-operative physical therapy has also produced similar outcomes to in-person services. 

“Our study found that virtual visits facilitate health care access and relationship-building, contributing to satisfying relationship-centered care, a crucial aspect of contemporary patient experiences,” the researchers concluded. “Even during a single virtual visit, we found that patients and clinicians could meaningfully engage in relationship-building practices.”