The Advent of Telemedicine: Ascertaining Patient Experience via Remote Encounters

Telemedicine is a modern tool for healthcare delivery that uses various forms of technology to provide medical services remotely. Telemedicine use by healthcare providers and patients has been increasing in frequency for the past several years. The increasing utilization of telemedicine has been fueled by various reasons, including: The onset of the COVID19 pandemic; decrease in the number of healthcare providers available to see patients; the increasing number of insured patients seeking healthcare access. The survey was conducted by family residents working within the Texas Institute of Graduate Medical Education And Research (TIGMER) Family Medicine program. The patients surveyed are all patients of Communicare, a federally qualified health care (FQHC) facility. Out of 353 patients, 125 patients provided responses to the six questions mentioned above. Overall, patients seem to have enjoyed and benefited from the telemedicine visit over the weekend. While further follow-up questions and bigger sample size would be necessary to provide better insights, the survey shows that weekend telemedicine definitely benefits both patients and primary care clinics in terms of patient-provider satisfaction, access to healthcare, and financial benefits.