Search

Background At the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an urgent need to limit the exposure of patients (pts) to SARS-CoV-2, including areas within outpatient medical offices. Nevertheless, high risk heart failure (HF) pts continued to require close management. To overcome this predicament, at our institution pts were asked to stay at home and engage in virtual HF visits (VHFVs) via telephone or video, in lieu of in-office visits (IOVs). Objective The purpose of this abstract is to report patient satisfaction with VHFVs during the initial 30 day surge of COVID 19, compared to their satisfaction with IOVs over the preceding 3 months. Methods The Montefiore- Einstein Heart Failure service cares for over 4,000 pts who predominantly reside within the Bronx borough, and represent a vulnerable, urban, low socioeconomic population. Our team includes 12 providers consisting of both NPs and MDs. On 3/17/20 all non-urgent IOVs were stopped, and as a work around a virtual platform was created within our electronic medical record system (EPIC) to facilitate VHFVs. As of April 1st, all IOVs were converted to VHFVs, with few exceptions. We retrospectively identified all HF pts (N=502) who engaged in VHFVs (N=609) during the month of April, 2020. Those pts who also had IOVs within the preceding 90 days made up the survey cohort (N=283). A patient satisfaction survey was created in English and Spanish, using a 5 point Likert Scale. The survey was administered by phone, in the subjects' native language. Results The survey was completed by 117 of the 283 eligible subjects (41%), with clinical characteristics as described (Table 1). In 5 of 8 categories of patient satisfaction, pts indicated that they preferred IOVs to VHFVs (Figure 1). IOVs and VHFV were equally ranked in regard to the scheduled appointment time, and also how well pts were listened to and understood by the clinician. Only the convenience of VHFVs was favored more. Nevertheless, 90% of pts were willing to have another VHFV if necessary. Conclusion Even in the setting of a pandemic and despite the convenience (of time, cost and travel), pts overall tended to prefer IOVs to VHFVs, yet remained open to engaging in future VHFV if necessary. Given the unique situation of the COVID-19 surge during the conduct of this survey, the results may not reflect patient satisfaction during ordinary times.