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Patient and staff satisfaction with remote psychiatry assessments using mobile tablets in long-stay facilities in rural north-west Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

S. Patel*
Affiliation:
Psychiatry Of Old Age, Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services, Sligo, Ireland
E. Maye
Affiliation:
School Of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
A. Gannon
Affiliation:
Psychiatry Of Old Age, Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services, Sligo, Ireland
M. Cryan
Affiliation:
Psychiatry Of Old Age, Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services, Sligo, Ireland
C. Dolan
Affiliation:
Psychiatry Of Old Age, Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services, Sligo, Ireland
G. Mccarthy
Affiliation:
Psychiatry Of Old Age, Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services, Sligo, Ireland Sligo Medical Academy, NUIG, Sligo, Ireland
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has required services to evolve quickly to continue routine care and telemedicine has been rapidly implemented to facilitate this. Older persons are at high risk of serious complications of COVID-19 and it is essential that their exposure to COVID-19 is minimized.

Objectives

Our aim was to assess staff and patient satisfaction with remote psychiatric assessments using mobile tablets in long-stay facilities.

Methods

Remote clinics using Skype video on mobile tablets were conducted with patients in long-stay facilities attending psychiatry in rural North-West Ireland between April and July 2020. At each review, a satisfaction survey was administered to the patient, their keyworker and the clinician. The patient/keyworker survey instrument had four yes/no statements and the clinician survey had four statements with 5-point likert scale responses (1=very low to 5=very high). Open feedback was also obtained for thematic analysis. Descriptive analyses were completed using SPSS software.

Results

23 patients (mean age 80.9yrs) were assessed in 10 long-stay facilities. All patients were agreeable to participating in video consultation although only 13 patients were able to respond to survey due to cognitive impairment. There was a 92.3% positive patient response (12/13) and 95.7% positive keyworker response (N=22/23) for all statements. The mean score on the assessor response ranged from 3.43 to 4.04 with the lowest rate for quality of transmission. The main themes identified were related to the quality of connection and sensory difficulties.

Conclusions

Video consultations using mobile tablets offer an acceptable form of remote psychiatry assessment for older persons in long-stay facilities.

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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