Highlights
- •What is current known about this topic?
- •Rise in telehealth adoption during COVID-19 highlights need for pediatric care adaptability.
- •What new information is contained in this article?
- •Telehealth pediatric pre-op evaluations non-inferiority to in-person, per patient experience scores and access.
Abstract
Background
A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the comparative effectiveness of virtual
visits for preoperative evaluation and surgical decision-making in three pediatric
surgical subspecialties.
Methods
Patients who underwent surgical procedures in the departments of Urology, Ophthalmology,
and Plastic and Oral Surgery at a tertiary care pediatric hospital over a one-year
period during the COVID-19 pandemic were included. Patients were assigned to one of
three clinical pathways based on their preoperative visit(s): only in-person visit(s)
(IP), a combination of in-person and virtual visit(s) (IP/VV), and only virtual visit(s)
(VV). Demographics, procedure information, and patient experience survey results were
collected. We then assessed variations in procedure types and patient experience scores
in these three patient groups.
Results
There were 431 patients who completed the modified patient experience survey. The
most common procedures were circumcision (17%), excision of lesion (16%), and strabismus
repair (11%). Survey results were positive, with 90% of participants rating that they
would recommend the service to others. No significant differences were found among
groups in their demographics, overall care rating, and duration between preoperative
clinic visit and procedure. Post-hoc power analysis indicated 87% power to detect
a 10% difference in survey ratings between IP and VV cases, confirming non-inferiority
in patient satisfaction for virtual preoperative visits.
Conclusion
This study demonstrated the non-inferiority of preoperative virtual visits in three
pediatric surgical subspecialties as measured by patient experience scores. Additional
studies with more granular scope are necessary to further elucidate telemedicine's
safety and efficacy for select diagnoses.
Level of evidence
III.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
A. PGAS (Press Ganey Ambulatory Surgery Survey), B. IP (In person Visit), C. IP/VV (In Person and Virtual), D. VV (Virtual)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 27, 2022
Accepted:
December 19,
2022
Received in revised form:
December 6,
2022
Received:
September 27,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
