Family physician's perception towards virtual care during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has ingendered a significant transition in medical practice towards an online model of care. Although virtual methods of service have been liberally used these past months, the precise level of satisfaction of physicians is important to understand the barriers that the service faced and the future of maintaining these models of patient care. This quantitative study aimed at measuring the satisfaction of family medicine physicians with virtual services while practising in Saudi Arabia during COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN AND SETTING: A questionnaire was distributed to participating physicians working in Saudi Arabia. Demographic, satisfaction, and thoughts on future applicability of online care was evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 118 physicians responded to the questionnaire. Demographic values were mostly evenly distributed whereas mean satisfaction level during the pandemic was 77.53% ± 15.04. The only variable impacting levels of satisfaction was overall burden of work in number of different sites worked for on a weekly basis. CONCLUSION: The family medicine physicians who worked during the pandemic using virtual services were generally satisfied with the services. Future studies should evaluate the applicability of using these tools after the end of the pandemic.