O2176: Patient and Family Caregiver Reported Experience with Virtual Video Visits

Background: The use of virtual care in the ambulatory setting rose globally beginning in March 2020, leveraging advances in digital communication tools, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The video conferencing platform Zoom was integrated into the electronic health record (EHR) at our organization, becoming the predominant method for virtual visits (67%) as of October 2020. Patient and family caregivers are an integral part of practice and process evaluations. This abstract reports the results of a yearly Patient & Family Virtual Care Experience Survey.

Methods: The Patient & Family Virtual Care Experience Survey comprises multiple choice/Likert scales and short answer responses. Responses were anonymous, collecting high level demographic and user experience feedback in domains of satisfaction, effectiveness, timeliness, cost savings, and preferences. The survey was circulated by email, sent automatically via the EHR the day following an integrated virtual visit, for a period of approximately six consecutive weeks in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Results: At our organization 260,024 virtual visits were completed, with 80,814 unique patients, across ambulatory programs between March 2020 and March 2023. 3,356 surveys were completed: 1,154 in 2021 (1045 parents or guardians and 109 patients), 1,317 in 2022 (1203 parents or guardians and 114 patients), and 913 in 2023 (839 parents or guardians and 74 patients). This represents a response rate of 16-18% of patients who had an integrated virtual visit during the distribution period.

Patients and family caregivers reported high overall satisfaction with their virtual visits (>94% each year). Many families reported that their virtual visit experience was the same or better when compared to a visit onsite (79-84%). When asked in 2022 and 2023, respondents preferred virtual visits or a mix of onsite and virtual (92%). Wait times to start a virtual visit were reported as less than 15 minutes for 89-90% of respondents each year. Further, most reported understanding the “next steps” in their care following a virtual visit (96-98%). There was high reported confidence in the maintenance of health information privacy (93-98%). Families also identified an average savings of $157 - $172. Themes from the free text comments varied year to year, with convenience of virtual visits (time and money savings) and a desire for choice of virtual versus in person visits, appearing each year.

Conclusion: The yearly Patient & Family Virtual Care Experience Survey administration is a useful method of gathering user insights and providing valuable information to clinical leadership. The results highlighted the preference for many patients and families to continue with virtual visits when appropriate for their care. Learnings from the surveys were included in action plans each year to drive quality improvements and help sustain virtual as a mode of care beyond the pandemic.