Anesthesia Services Can be Provided via Telemedicine: An Assessment of the Readiness

Telemedicine technology can not only improve service quality, reduce costs, and broaden access to specialized and subspecialty healthcare services, but also be utilized to provide certain anesthesia services.

The objective of this study was to translate and assess the validity and reliability of the Telehealth Readiness Assessment (TRA) tool, used to evaluate the readiness of healthcare providers, for anesthesia services to implement telemedicine for delivering anesthesia services to patients.

In this cross-sectional study, the initial step involved translating the questionnaire followed by an assessment of its validity and reliability. The questionnaire was then distributed to the staff members in the Anesthesiology Research Center. The readiness assessment encompassed various aspects, including Core Readiness, Financial Considerations, Operations, Staff Engagement, and Patient Readiness.

The Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) were 93% and 72%, respectively. The internal consistency of each item and the overall TRA score demonstrated excellent reliability, with all values exceeding 0.90. The internal consistency coefficients ranged from 0.92 to 1.00, indicating high reliability and consistency in the measurements of the TRA questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha was 99%. The TRA subscales mean scores were 71.77±14.76, 63.25±16.14, 67.36±20.46, 68.81±18.50, and 72.52±14.39, respectively. The TRA total mean score was 68.61±17.33.

The Persian version of the TRA questionnaire exhibits acceptable levels of validity and reliability. The readiness level related to the implementation of telemedicine for anesthesiologists was obtained as moderate. To ensure the success of telemedicine projects, it is of the utmost importance to pay close attention to the relevant indicators, with particular focus on financial considerations, as this area received the lowest score.