Efficacy and satisfaction of asynchronous TeleHealth care compared to in-person visits following colorectal surgical resection

BACKGROUND: The feasibility of remote visits following abdominal colorectal surgery has not been studied in relation to efficacy, patient satisfaction, and surgeon satisfaction. This study aims to assess reliability and satisfaction with a web-based questionnaire for post-operative visits following abdominal colorectal surgery. METHODS: This was a prospective single-arm cohort study at single-tertiary care center during admission for abdominal colorectal surgery. Using a web-based patient portal, patients completed a questionnaire 48 h prior to their scheduled in-person follow-up visits and submitted photographs of their incisions. Surgeons reviewed patient-entered data and responded within 24 h. Following the subsequent in-person visit, surgeons completed questionnaires to compare the accuracy of the web-based vs. in-person evaluations. Lastly, patients and surgeons completed separate satisfaction surveys after the in-person visits. RESULTS: A total of 33 patients were enrolled, of which 30 (90.9%) successfully completed the web questionnaire. Providers reported the online questionnaire to be concordant with the in-person visit in 90% of cases. Of the patients who completed the study, only half found the survey alone to be acceptable for follow-up. Patients spent significantly less time completing the online questionnaire (≤ 10 min) than in-person visits, including travel time (75 min, IQR 50–100). Only 12 patients (40%) uploaded photographs of their incisions. During in-person visits, management changes were employed in four patients (13.3%), of which 3 required treatment of superficial surgical site infections (10%). CONCLUSION: This asynchronous web-based visit format was acceptable to colorectal surgeons but was only embraced by half of patients, despite considerable time savings. While patients preferred in-person visits, there may be opportunities to expand TeleHealth acceptance that focus on patient selection and education. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05084131. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00464-022-09383-8.