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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #391235
Research Project: Preventing the Development of Childhood Obesity

Location: Children's Nutrition Research Center

Title: Patient satisfaction in neurodevelopmental pediatrics: In-person versus telemedicine

Author
item KENNELLY, ANN - Baylor College Of Medicine
item MCINTYRE, BRANDON - Baylor College Of Medicine
item WOOD, ALEXIS - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item MONTEIRO, SONIA - Baylor College Of Medicine
item VOIGT, ROBERT - Baylor College Of Medicine

Submitted to: Journal of Child Neurology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/20/2022
Publication Date: 4/12/2022
Citation: Kennelly, A.M., McIntyre, B., Wood, A.C., Monteiro, S., Voigt, R.G. 2022. Patient satisfaction in neurodevelopmental pediatrics: In-person versus telemedicine. Journal of Child Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1177/08830738221075451.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/08830738221075451

Interpretive Summary: Individuals with obesity experience more medical conditions, and require more visits with medical providers, than those without. During the pandemic many such visits were conducted via "telemedicine" rather than as an in-person appointment. To better understand ways in which the pandemic may have affected individuals with obesity, we examined whether patients reported higher levels of satisfaction during the time when all visits were conducted in-person (pre-pandemic) vs. the time when all visits were conducted via "telemedicine" (the first 3 months of the pandemic). We found no differences in patient reported satisfaction levels, indicating that the shift to telemedicine is not likely to have been challenging for individuals with obesity.

Technical Abstract: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical practices for children with neurodevelopmental disorders urgently adopted telehealth, despite limited data regarding patient satisfaction. Our objective was to compare patient satisfaction survey scores for neurodevelopmental pediatric appointments completed in-person to appointments completed via telemedicine. Using routinely collected Press Ganey survey results, the proportion of Top Box scores (the percentage of responses in the highest possible category [ie, the percentage of "very good" or "always" responses]) for an in-person only group was compared to the proportion in a telemedicine-only group using Fisher's exact test. Most respondents gave Top-Box scores in response to all of the questions for both in-person and telemedicine visits. There were no statistically significant differences in any domain of the Press Ganey surveys in Top Box percentages for in-person vs. telemedicine visits. This study provides preliminary evidence that telehealth may be an acceptable modality for families seeking care for their children with neurodevelopmental concerns.