Evaluation Strategies for Understanding Experiences With Virtual Care in Canada: Mixed Methods Study

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Health Services Research
• Health Informatics
• Patient Experience Measurement

Background:

• Virtual care rapidly integrated into pediatric health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Understanding user experiences is crucial for sustainable, high-quality, patient-centered virtual care.
• Current evaluation methods for virtual care experiences are highly variable, hindering data synthesis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe current evaluation strategies for pediatric virtual care experiences in Canada.
• To identify common evaluation approaches and tools used.
• To explore interest in standardized evaluation questions.

Main Methods:

• Mixed methods environmental scan including web-based questionnaires and semistructured interviews.
• Questionnaires distributed to leaders in pediatric virtual care across Canada.
• Content analysis of submitted evaluation tools and semistructured interviews exploring evaluation experiences.

Main Results:

• 15 unique evaluations were identified, measuring experiences of parents (100%), children (73%), providers (73%), and staff (27%).
• Electronic questionnaires via email were the most common data collection method; few used validated tools.
• Common questions focused on satisfaction, comparison to in-person care, and future preferences; a need for standardized questions was identified.

Conclusions:

• Pediatric virtual care experiences in Canada are evaluated using diverse methods.
• A consistent evaluation approach with standardized tools could enable better comparisons and synthesis of findings.
• Standardization may improve virtual care integration and support sustainable, high-quality, patient-centered care.