Study Design
This study was reviewed by the University of Pennsylvania Institutional
Review Board (IRB) and was determined to be a quality improvement
initiative that was exempted from further IRB review.
A retrospective chart review of telemedicine outpatient encounters by
Head and Neck Otolaryngology faculty from March 25, 2020 to April 24,
2020 was conducted. All patients aged 18 years old or older seen via a
telephone or video-based encounter were included. Demographic data was
collected including (age, gender, race, and insurance status), and
disease and treatment characteristics, and encounter type were collected
from chart review.
Only patients with video-based telemedicine visits were contacted to
complete the patient satisfaction survey and all participants provided
verbal consent to participate (Figure 1). Patients answered demographic
questions (education level) and questions regarding telemedicine visit
characteristics (platform and device used, whether assistance was
required for set up). A structured, likert-scale based survey consisting
of the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) was administered.
The Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) was chosen to assess
patient satisfaction with the video-based telemedicine visits based on
review of the literature to identify validated
tools.25 The TUQ is a comprehensive and validated
survey tool that includes questions in the domains of usefulness, ease
of use, interaction quality (effectiveness), reliability, and
satisfaction. It was chosen for its ability to address changes in
telehealth service delivery, for example the use of different platforms
or devices, as well as its ability to measure the quality of the
telemedicine interaction and patient satisfaction with the encounter.
The TUQ was developed from existing telehealth questionnaires and has
robust independent content validity and internal consistency
evidence.26