Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2023

Patient Satisfaction Survey on Telephone Consultations implemented during the Covid-19 Pandemic Era. (#415)

Adilah Amil 1 , Roslyn Jones 1 , Kimberley Chan 1 , Jennifer Doyle 1 , Ru-Wen Teh 1
  1. Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia

As we emerge out of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospital services are assessing the changes made during this difficult period. Out of necessity, many services, especially those who treat immunocompromised patients, had to pivot quickly to minimize the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The Medical Oncology Department at Royal Perth Hospital, an inner-city outpatient-based service with limited space to allow social distancing, underwent a significant shift in patient care, utilising telephone consultations as its mainstay for patient appointments.  In order to optimize our service in the post-pandemic era, we sought our patients’ opinion with regards to how they would like our service to run. We devised an online questionnaire for patients to complete. Two hundred and fifty-one patients submitted a questionnaire. The majority of patients (83%) rated their telephone consult as good or very good. Almost three quarters of patients (72%) would like telephone consultations to continue. Patient reported benefits include time and money savings as well as convenience.  A quarter of patients (24%) would prefer face to face appointments only. Patients did not report significant issues with telephone consultations with only 7% reporting concerns about quality of care and treatment received. Those who preferred face to face appointments report the reason to be being more comfortable talking in person. The median net promoter score was 58. As such, we aim to continue to delivery of our consultations according to patient preference. The next step would be to determine if there are any flow on effects from telephone consultations – has it improved DNA rates, improved compliance as it is easier for patients to access health care. Whilst many felt safe with their telephone consultation has this in fact lead to poorer health outcomes as patients are not examined as regularly. Further studies will need to be conducted to determine these important questions.