The Impact of Medical Teleconsultations on General Practitioner-patient Communication During COVID- 19: A Case Study from Poland

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2021 Jul 16

PMID 34270587

Citations 28

Authors

Magdalena Kludacz-Alessandri

Liliana Hawrysz

Piotr Korneta

Grazyna Gierszewska

Wioletta Pomaranik

Renata Walczak

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

According to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical teleconsultations using various technologies have become an important tool to mediate communication between general practitioners (GP) and the patients in primary health care in many countries. The quality of the GP-patient communication is an essential factor, which improves the results of treatment and patient satisfaction. The objective of this paper is to study patients' satisfaction from teleconsultation in primary care and the impact of teleconsultations on GP-patient communication through the Covid-19 pandemic in Poland. We analyse whether the teleconsultations performed without physical examinations have a positive impact on GP-patient communication. The quality of teleconsultation and GP-patient communication have been measured using a questionnaire regarding the quality of medical care in a remote care conditions. Among 36 items, nine questions have been related to the dimension of GP-patient communication and ten to system experience. Our results suggest that the quality of teleconsultations is not inferior to the quality of consultation during a face-to-face visit. The patients indicated a high level of satisfaction regarding communication with their GP during teleconsultation. We have also identified that the technical quality and the sense of comfort during teleconsultation positively impact the communication quality.

Citing Articles

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