Perception of Telemedicine in Health Care Workers of a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Objective: This investigation aimed to determine the feasibility of using telemedicine for screening and to observe healthcare provider’s opinion about telemedicine. In addition to that, explore the barriers in use of telemedicine Study Design and setting: A cross-sectional study was carried out at Central Park Medical College and Teaching Hospital. Methodology: The study was conducted between November, 2020 to April,2021 from 176 doctors and nurses working at Central Park Teaching Hospital using a convenience sampling technique. Convenience sampling was used because there is always a high probability of non-response or unavailability of clinical doctors and nurses. The minimum sample size was calculated as 88 for the group of doctors. The minimum sample size was doubled to collect the data from two cadres. The questionnaire was based on demographic information, general opinion about telemedicine such as reliability, comparison with standard examination procedure, nature, popularity, knowledge requirement, cost-effectiveness, designed frame and barriers for telemedicine. Results: Nearly, 80.1% of the participants were doctors with clinical experience while the remaining were nurses. Approximately 72.5% of the doctors and 58.5% of the sampled participants said that telemedicine does not fulfill the need for standard examination procedures. Conclusion: The findings of our study showed that the general opinion of healthcare professionals about telemedicine was unfavorable. Doctors had negative views but the nursing staff was optimistic. There was a mixed response about convenience. The main barrier to telemedicine was the poor communication skills of patients and availability and knowledge for using infrastructure