Patients’ Satisfaction With Telepsychiatry Services at a University Hospital in Riyadh During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Almalky, Ahmad M; Alhaidar, Fatima A

Background and objective Telepsychiatry uses electronic communication and various technologies to provide psychiatric care by a psychiatrist in one location to a patient in another location. It was originally created to meet the mental health needs of patients in rural, remote, and inaccessible areas. This study aimed to assess the satisfaction level with telepsychiatry from patients' perspectives and to study whether the satisfaction levels influence the patients' decision to use the service in the future. Methodology This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The study included psychiatric patients with complete medical records who were followed up through the telepsychiatry program over the phone due to the restriction and regulation implemented by the government in the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The data were collected via a questionnaire designed on a Google Form. Initially, the sample size was set at 337 psychiatric patients, but only 141 patients agreed to be included. The SPSS Statistics program (IBM, Armonk, NY) was used to analyze the data. Results Patients were generally satisfied with the telepsychiatry services; 80.1%, 95.7%, and 96.5% of the participants were satisfied with the structure, process, and outcome, respectively, and 94.3% of the patients reported a sense of overall satisfaction. The study did not find any relationship between satisfaction and demographic characteristics. Patients highly valued some aspects during the service use, such as comfort, privacy, easy access, carefulness, and skillfulness of the clinicians. Of the respondents, 24.1% agreed and 24.8% strongly agreed when asked if they would use the service in the future. Conclusion Patients had generally positive satisfaction levels toward telepsychiatry service, and many reported that they would like to continue using it in the future. However, further studies are needed to assess whether patient perception will change over time after the COVID-19 pandemic.