The Ideal Patient for Teleconsultation and Saving Resources

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Services Research
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Teleconsultation (TC) offers a potential alternative to traditional face-to-face medical consultations.
• Understanding patient acceptance and identifying ideal patient profiles are crucial for successful TC implementation.
• Assessing the impact of TC on patient time and financial resources is essential for evaluating its value.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate patient acceptance of teleconsultation (TC).
• To define the ideal patient profile for teleconsultation services.
• To estimate the time and financial impact of TC compared to in-person visits.

Main Methods:

• Prospective, non-probabilistic study with random sampling.
• A 19-question survey administered to 400 general healthcare users.
• Analysis of patient acceptance using a direct question about the attractiveness of video conference consultations.

Main Results:

• 73.8% of patients expressed favorability towards TC services.
• Key factors associated with TC acceptance included prior online purchasing experience (OR=2.6) and willingness to pay for TC (OR=7.8).
• Face-to-face visits involved significant patient time (5 hours travel) and costs (€29.8 on average journey time).

Conclusions:

• A substantial majority of healthcare users are receptive to teleconsultation.
• Patients with a history of online shopping and willingness to incur costs for remote consultations show higher acceptance rates.
• TC presents a potentially time- and cost-effective alternative to traditional healthcare delivery.