Telemedicine treatment of patients with mental disorders during and after the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany - an observational study on feasibility and patient satisfaction.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 100968559 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1471-244X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 1471244X NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Psychiatry Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2001-

COVID-19* ; Telemedicine* ; Mental Disorders*; Humans ; Patient Satisfaction ; Pandemics ; Feasibility Studies ; Communicable Disease Control ; Outpatients ; Germany

Introduction: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a general lockdown was enacted across Germany in March 2020. As a consequence, patients with mental health conditions received limited or no treatment in day hospitals and outpatient settings. To ensure continuity of care, the necessary technological preparations were made to enable the implementation of telemedical care via telephone or video conferencing, and this option was then used as much as possible. The aim of this study was to investigate the satisfaction and acceptance with telemedical care in a heterogeneous patient group of psychiatric outpatients in Germany during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
Methods: In this observational study, patients in ongoing or newly initiated outpatient psychiatric therapy as well as those who had to be discharged from the day clinic ahead of schedule received telemedical treatment via telephone. Data collection to assess the patients' and therapists' satisfaction with and acceptance of the telemedical care was adjusted to the treatment setting.
Results: Of 60 recruited patients, 57 could be included in the analysis. 51.6% of the patients and 52.3% of their therapists reported that the discussion of problems and needs worked just as well over the phone as in face-to-face consultations. In the subgroup of patients who were new to therapy due to being discharged from hospital early, acceptance was higher and telemedicine was rated as equally good in 87.5% of contacts. Both patients and therapists felt that telemedicine care during lockdown was an alternative for usual therapy in the outpatient clinic and that the option of telemedicine care should continue for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
Discussion: The results show a clear trend towards satisfaction with and acceptance of telemedicine care in a heterogeneous group of unselected psychiatric patients. Although the number of patients is small, the results indicate that the mostly positive results of telemedicine concepts in research projects can probably be transferred to real healthcare settings.
Conclusions: Telemedicine can be employed in healthcare for psychiatric patients either an alternative treatment option to maintain continuity of care or as a potential addition to regular care.
(© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

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Keywords: Acceptance; COVID-19 pandemic; Lockdown; Psychiatric outpatients; Satisfaction; Telemedical treatment; Telemedicine

Date Created: 20230905 Date Completed: 20230907 Latest Revision: 20231121

20240628

PMC10478407

10.1186/s12888-023-05140-w

37670236