Formative evaluation of a telemedicine model for delivering clinical neurophysiology services part II: The referring clinician and patient perspective

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making

Research Article

Valerie Reid¹  Geraldine Browne¹  Fiona Molloy¹  Sean Connolly²  Kevin Murphy³  Colin Doherty⁴  Patricia Breen⁵  Norman Delanty⁵  Mary Fitzsimons⁵ 

[1] Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, Ireland;Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, St. Vincent's University Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin 4, Ireland;Department of Neurology, Sligo General Hospital, Sligo, Ireland;Department of Neurology, St. James's Hospital, James's Street, Dublin 8, Ireland;Epilepsy Programme, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, Ireland;

关键词: Satisfaction Survey;    Clinical Neurophysiology;    Beaumont Hospital;    Satellite Centre;    Bioelectric Signal;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6947-10-49

 received in 2010-03-10, accepted in 2010-09-15,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFeedback from service users will provide insight into opportunities for improvement so that performance can be optimised. In the context of a formative evaluation referring clinician and patient satisfaction with a teleneurophysiology service was examined during a 20 week pilot period.MethodsQuestionnaire surveys of referring clinicians and patients were conducted.ResultsFifteen (58%) clinicians responded to the first part of a postal survey which examined their satisfaction with traditional clinical neurophysiology services. Nine (35%) responded to a second part which assessed their experience with the teleneurophysiology service. Teleneurophysiology improved satisfaction with waiting times, availability of results and impact on patient management. There was unanimous support from the clinicians for the permanent development of a teleneurophysiology service, although 2 cautioned this could delay establishing a neurology service in their region.Eighty-two percent (116/142) of patients responded to a survey of their satisfaction with teleneurophysiology. This was compared to a previous report of 322 patients' experience with traditional CN services in Ireland. Waiting times for appointment were shorter for the former group who supported the telemedicine model recognising that it reduced the travel burden and need for overnight journeys. The two groups were equally anxious about the investigation although the teleneurophysiology patients received more prior information.ConclusionThis study illustrates that teleneurophysiology is an acceptable model of service delivery for its primary customers. Their feedback is important in informing appropriate design and governance of such innovative models of health service provision.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Breen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.