Consulta Telefónica em Contexto Pandémico: Avaliação da Satisfação dos Doentes

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) augmented the pressure on health care systems. In order to contain the transmission alternative measures were adopted regarding care delivery to chronic diseases, namely through the use of telemedicine. Patient satisfaction with health care is associated with a better prognosis. In this study we intend to evaluate satisfaction with the provided health care in Internal Medicine telephonic appointments. Material and Methods: After performing a literature review we created a questionnaire to evaluate patient satisfaction with telephonic appointments. All patients with Internal Medicine telephonic appointments on September 2020 were included. The questionnaire was applied to the patient or to a family member. Results: The questionnaire was performed to 81 patients with an average age of 67.9 years and male predominance (53.1%). The questionnaire was answered by the patient himself in 71.6% of cases. Seventy patients (86.5%) agree/totally agree that telephonic appointments enabled health care that suited their needs and 88.8% agree/totally agree that it represents an acceptable way of health care delivery. The majority (74.1%) revealed satisfaction with telephonic appointments. Discussion and Conclusion: We present a new satisfaction questionnaire that showed a good reliability and can represent an important tool in the future. In general patients attributed high total satisfaction scores to telephonic appointments, revealing its acceptance as an alternative way of receiving health care. The implementation of telemedicine during the current pandemic allows health care delivery to be maintained, representing a promising strategy.