Cargando…

Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study

OBJECTIVE: To describe physicians’ experiences of video consultation with new patients visiting a publicly owned virtual primary care clinic. DESIGN: In this qualitative study, data were collected from semi-structured individual interviews and analysed by systematic text condensation. SETTING: A pub...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Björndell, Cajsa, Premberg, Åsa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7971243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33650941
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02813432.2021.1882082
_version_ 1783666575436414976
author Björndell, Cajsa
Premberg, Åsa
author_facet Björndell, Cajsa
Premberg, Åsa
author_sort Björndell, Cajsa
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: To describe physicians’ experiences of video consultation with new patients visiting a publicly owned virtual primary care clinic. DESIGN: In this qualitative study, data were collected from semi-structured individual interviews and analysed by systematic text condensation. SETTING: A publicly owned virtual primary care clinic in Region Västra Götaland, Sweden. SUBJECTS: Ten primary care physicians working at the clinic. RESULTS: Connecting with a patient over video could be either straightforward or deficient, depending on communication and the patient’s condition. Clinical experience, communication skills, and involving patients throughout the consultation and examination were crucial for assessments over video where patients were guided to perform self-examination. The flexibility of work and the regulated assignment online were positive for the physicians’ work situation and wellbeing. Providing video consultation within the same organisation as the patient’s regular health centre was considered to facilitate patient care and safety. Video consultation was considered suitable for some diagnoses and for some patients not able to reach a primary healthcare centre, though doubts were expressed about the healthcare and social benefits of this virtual care service. CONCLUSION: For the physicians, video consultation induced changes in the basis for assessment of primary care patients. The limitations on informational exchange demanded an extended form of patient involvement founded upon consultation skills, clinical experience and new skills for virtual examination. Combining virtual care with traditional general practice has the potential to reduce the workload for the individual physician and ensure medical competence in virtual primary care. Video consultation experienced suitable in some situations, but easy access to it expressed problematic in terms of medical prioritisation in healthcare. KEY POINTS: Video consultation is suitable for primary care visits for some patients, but physicians’ experiences of this are rarely studied. ; •Clinical experience and consultation skills are important for video assessment of primary care patients which involves physician-guided patient self-examination. •Video consultation facilitates care in some situations and could benefit from the provider being connected to patient’s regular health centre. •Virtual care offers a flexible way of working but challenges healthcare prioritisation from the primary care physician’s perspective.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7971243
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Taylor & Francis
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-79712432021-03-31 Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study Björndell, Cajsa Premberg, Åsa Scand J Prim Health Care Research Articles OBJECTIVE: To describe physicians’ experiences of video consultation with new patients visiting a publicly owned virtual primary care clinic. DESIGN: In this qualitative study, data were collected from semi-structured individual interviews and analysed by systematic text condensation. SETTING: A publicly owned virtual primary care clinic in Region Västra Götaland, Sweden. SUBJECTS: Ten primary care physicians working at the clinic. RESULTS: Connecting with a patient over video could be either straightforward or deficient, depending on communication and the patient’s condition. Clinical experience, communication skills, and involving patients throughout the consultation and examination were crucial for assessments over video where patients were guided to perform self-examination. The flexibility of work and the regulated assignment online were positive for the physicians’ work situation and wellbeing. Providing video consultation within the same organisation as the patient’s regular health centre was considered to facilitate patient care and safety. Video consultation was considered suitable for some diagnoses and for some patients not able to reach a primary healthcare centre, though doubts were expressed about the healthcare and social benefits of this virtual care service. CONCLUSION: For the physicians, video consultation induced changes in the basis for assessment of primary care patients. The limitations on informational exchange demanded an extended form of patient involvement founded upon consultation skills, clinical experience and new skills for virtual examination. Combining virtual care with traditional general practice has the potential to reduce the workload for the individual physician and ensure medical competence in virtual primary care. Video consultation experienced suitable in some situations, but easy access to it expressed problematic in terms of medical prioritisation in healthcare. KEY POINTS: Video consultation is suitable for primary care visits for some patients, but physicians’ experiences of this are rarely studied. ; •Clinical experience and consultation skills are important for video assessment of primary care patients which involves physician-guided patient self-examination. •Video consultation facilitates care in some situations and could benefit from the provider being connected to patient’s regular health centre. •Virtual care offers a flexible way of working but challenges healthcare prioritisation from the primary care physician’s perspective. Taylor & Francis 2021-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7971243/ /pubmed/33650941 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02813432.2021.1882082 Text en © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Björndell, Cajsa
Premberg, Åsa
Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study
title Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study
title_full Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study
title_fullStr Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study
title_full_unstemmed Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study
title_short Physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study
title_sort physicians’ experiences of video consultation with patients at a public virtual primary care clinic: a qualitative interview study
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7971243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33650941
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02813432.2021.1882082
work_keys_str_mv AT bjorndellcajsa physiciansexperiencesofvideoconsultationwithpatientsatapublicvirtualprimarycareclinicaqualitativeinterviewstudy
AT prembergasa physiciansexperiencesofvideoconsultationwithpatientsatapublicvirtualprimarycareclinicaqualitativeinterviewstudy