Enhancing Your Webside Manner: Optimizing Opportunities for Relationship-Centered Care in Virtual Visits.

Area of Science:

• Telemedicine and Digital Health
• Patient-Clinician Communication
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a shift to virtual visits for healthcare delivery.
• Maintaining quality patient-clinician relationships is crucial, even in virtual settings.
• Effective communication is vital for successful virtual healthcare interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review existing research on relationship-building during virtual visits.
• To present outcomes from a quality improvement project refining a communication tip sheet for virtual care.
• To offer communication strategies for virtual patient care based on the R.E.D.E. to Communicate model.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of studies on virtual visit relationship-building.
• Description of a quality improvement project and its results.
• Presentation of communication strategies derived from a specific model.

Main Results:

• Identification of key factors influencing relationship formation in virtual visits.
• Refinement of a practical "Communication Tip Sheet" for virtual care.
• Development of actionable communication strategies for telehealth.

Conclusions:

• Effective relationship-building is essential for high-quality virtual healthcare.
• The "Communication Tip Sheet" and R.E.D.E. model provide valuable tools for clinicians.
• Improving communication skills can enhance the patient experience in telehealth.