Telehealth perceptions in patients with epilepsy and providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Casares, Maritsa; Wombles, Christina; Skinner, Holly J; Westerveld, Michael; Gireesh, Elakkat D

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has required novel solutions for issues that arise with social distancing. Telehealth has become one of those solutions in many clinics around the U.S. As we look beyond, the pandemic telehealth can be utilized as an important tool for clinics in the future. Patient satisfaction will most likely affect reimbursement, while provider perception will affect implementation. We see this as a valuable tool to many epilepsy clinics. The goal of our survey was to determine the perceptions and satisfaction of patients with intractable epilepsy and providers with telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic; we surveyed patient and providers. We evaluated the first 111 patients who participated in our telehealth visits. We conducted telephone surveys with the first 68 patients who agreed to participate. We also conducted surveys by email with our providers who participated in these telehealth visits. We found that 66% of patients and 67% of providers would use a telehealth visit in the future if given the option. Review of our patients' and providers' comments provides valuable insights for building a long-term successful intractable epilepsy telehealth clinic.