Intravitreal injections during COVID-19 outbreak: Protective measures, total duration of care and perceived quality of care in a tertiary retina center

PURPOSE: To assess patient satisfaction regarding the sudden reorganization of care during the COVID-19 pandemic in the outpatient intravitreal injection (IVI) clinic. METHODS: A survey of patients with ongoing IVIs for retinal diseases was carried out between April 23rd and May 12th, 2020. We designed a questionnaire to assess patient satisfaction concerning: personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing, the perceived quality of care, and the total time spent in the department, using a Likert scale. We also collected the time spent per patients in the outpatient IVI clinic. RESULTS: A hundred and twenty-seven eyes of 108 patients were included. The mean time spent in the IVI outpatient clinic was 31.87 +/− 16.61 min. In our survey, 99.1% of the patients were satisfied (highly satisfied or satisfied) with the new type of care provided, 89.8% with the duration of care, and 93.5% with the PPE. Satisfaction was associated with total time spent in hospital (p = 0.005), with dissatisfied patients spending about 50% more time in the hospital than satisfied patients (43.91 min vs 30.50 min). CONCLUSION: Despite the crisis-related adjustment, our survey revealed high patient satisfaction with PPE, quality of care, and total time spent in outpatient IVI clinic.