Introduction: Measuring patient satisfaction is important and useful for continual quality improvement. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has become increasingly useful for patient-physician interactions. The aim of this study is to evaluate patient satisfaction with telephone appointments replacing the standard in-person appointments in a regional urological practice.

Methods: Using the validated telehealth satisfaction scale (TeSS), minimally modified for use with urological patients,¹ this study was completed in Peterborough, Ontario, which serves a population of approximately 300 000 people. A total of 761 patients were called, with 400 surveys completed (361 patients didn’t answer or declined). One patient from the 400 was later excluded from analysis due to missing data. Questions 1–7 addressed the quality and general satisfaction of the telehealth phone calls, questions 8 and 9 are characteristics hypothesized as possibly affecting patient preference, and question 10 is a global rating of preference (Figure 1).

Results: Refer to tables 1–5 for survey analysis and tables 6–8 for statisical significance testing amongst subgroups. Of the 399 patients, 248 (62.2%) would prefer in-person appointments. In patients less than 60 years old, 14.7% would prefer in-person appointments, while 73.1% of those over age 60  would prefer in-person appointments (statistically significant). Given the large geographical area served, the impact on commute was examined and was found to not be statistically significant. Consultation vs. followup was examined; 83.8% of the consult patients vs. only 46.6% of the followup patients would prefer in-person appointments (statistically significant).

Conclusions: Most of the people surveyed found telehealth to be respectful and thorough. Despite the majority preferring an in-person visit, there is a non-trivial minority that would prefer telehealth; this is particularly true in some subgroups. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider continuing telehealth in this studied population post-pandemic.