Provider and Patient Satisfaction with Telemedicine Voice Therapy During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Mary E Kim, Lauren Timmons Sund, Mariah Morton and 3 others
PMID 36038478WHAT IT FOUND
Both patients and therapists rated telemedicine voice therapy highly.
Fourteen of twenty-two patients who completed a survey said they would choose virtual sessions over in-person care again. Reliable internet strongly predicted this preference.
Key findings
01Mean satisfaction scores were high for both groups: 86.8 for patients and 80.6 for providers on a 0-100 scale.
02Fourteen of twenty-two patients who completed a survey said they would choose telemedicine over in-person therapy when safe in-person appointments become available.
03Patients with hypofunctional voice disorders reported significantly higher satisfaction than those with hyperfunctional disorders.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 55 of 226 patients completed the patient satisfaction survey, meaning the patient data rests on a quarter of the cohort. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced satisfaction due to fears of in-person exposure. Providers did not have a validated questionnaire for their own satisfaction, relying on a single 0-100 scale. The cohort came from a single urban tertiary center with three specialized therapists, limiting generalizability to other settings.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that telemedicine voice therapy produces the same clinical outcomes as in-person care. This study measured how satisfied patients and providers felt about the sessions, not whether the patients' voices actually improved.