Authors (including presenting author) :
Lam CCS(1), Li CPM(2), Leung AKY(1), Louie FTM(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Occupational Therapy Department, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, Hong Kong
(2)Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital, Hong Kong
Introduction :
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, a significant proportion of occupational therapy (OT) orthopaedic out-patient service was postponed and suspended from March to May 2020. In order to provide time-critical care for orthopaedic patients, telecare became a treatment modality to provide OT intervention, risk identification and progress monitoring for patients in the pandemic.
Objectives :
To evaluate orthopaedic patient satisfaction with occupational therapy telecare management
Methodology :
27 patients from OT department in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital were randomly selected and recruited between March to May 2020. They had received telecare service and invited for satisfaction survey. Patient satisfaction was assessed with 4 questions on a 4 point likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Satisfaction survey and feedback were conducted and collected telephonically. No missing data were found.
Result & Outcome :
Results:
The mean age of our subjects was 54.8 years with 34.5% of male subjects and 58.6% of female subjects. Thirteen subjects (48.1%) were diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, 8 (27.6%) with acute soft tissue injury, 3 (10.3%) with de quervain disease, 2 (6.9%) with acute fracture and 1 (3.4%) with tennis elbow. The majority (N = 26, 96.3%) of subjects strongly agreed and 1 (3.7%) agreed that telecare management could save their travelling time to hospital for follow-up. The majority of subjects (N = 22, 81.5%) strongly agreed and 5 (18.5%) agreed that occupational therapist can understand their progress under telecare management. Similarly, the majority (N = 20, 74.1%) strongly agreed and 7 (25.9%) agreed that training activities and information could be delivered clearly under telecare management. Finally, the majority (N = 20, 74.1%) agreed, 6 (22.2%) strongly agreed and only 1 disagreed that occupational therapy tele-care management achieved their rehabilitation expectation. Open-ended feedbacks were also collected from subjects. They generally recommended that telecare management could conduct via video call rather than phone call. They also suggested that therapist could demonstrate home program training activities through video call or provide training videos for them.
Conclusion:
Patient satisfaction with OT telecare service via phone was high. Application of video call and development of multimedia could further improve the quality of OT telecare management.
