Perception and Attitude toward Teleconsultations among Different Healthcare Professionals in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Urszula Grata-Borkowska, Mateusz Sobieski, Jarosław Drobnik, Ewa Fabich and Maria Magdalena Bujnowska-Fedak ()
Additional contact information
Urszula Grata-Borkowska: Department of Family Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 51-141 Wroclaw, Poland
Mateusz Sobieski: Department of Family Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 51-141 Wroclaw, Poland
Jarosław Drobnik: Department of Family Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 51-141 Wroclaw, Poland
Ewa Fabich: Jan Mikulicz-Radecki University Teaching Hospital, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland
Maria Magdalena Bujnowska-Fedak: Department of Family Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 51-141 Wroclaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-15

Abstract: Teleconsultation has become one of the most important and sometimes the only possible forms of communication between healthcare professionals (HCPs) and their patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The perceptions and attitudes of HCPs to teleconsultations may affect the quality of the therapeutic process provided using them. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the attitudes to and perceptions of medical teleconsultation among various HCPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed data from a dedicated questionnaire on preferences, attitudes, and opinions about teleconsultation, which was filled by 780 Polish HCPs. Most of the HCPs were doctors and nurses (69% and 19%, respectively); most of the doctors were family physicians (50.1%). During the pandemic, teleconsultation and face-to-face contact were reported as the preferred methods of providing medical services with similar frequency. Doctors and nurses displayed the most positive attitude toward teleconsultation while the paramedics and physiotherapists took the least positive view of it. The most frequently indicated ratio of the optimal number of teleconsultations to in-person visits in primary health facilities care was 20%:80%. Most HCPs appreciate the value of teleconsultation, and more than half of them are willing to continue this form of communication with the patient when necessary or desirable.

Keywords: healthcare professionals; teleconsultation; effectiveness; reliability; COVID-19 pandemic; doctor; nurse; midwife; paramedic; physiotherapist (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11532/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11532/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11532-:d:913899

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().