Physician Satisfaction With Telehealth: A Systematic Review and Agenda for Future Research

Abstract

Background and objectives: The use of telehealth has risen dramatically due to the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to be a regular part of patient care moving forward. We know little currently about how satisfied physicians are with this type of patient care. The present systematic review examines physician satisfaction with telehealth, as physician acceptance remains vital to telehealth gaining wider and more permanent adoption.

Methods: A PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)-guided systematic review of empirical articles published between 2010 and 2020 that contain a finding examining physician satisfaction with using telehealth, using 4 article databases (PubMed, Web of Science, COCHRANE, and CINAHL), to identify relevant studies. A standardized data abstraction Excel sheet was used to extract relevant information from each of the included studies. Relevant study findings related to physician satisfaction with telehealth were reviewed for each of the 37 studies by the coauthors.

Results: A total of 37 published studies were included in the review. Thirty-three of the 37 (89%) studies reviewed were classified as having findings showing moderate to high levels of physician satisfaction with telehealth. Just under 60% of the studies focused on physician satisfaction with providing telemedicine to patients (21/37). Twelve other studies focused on physician satisfaction with teleconsultations with other providers. Four studies examined physician satisfaction with both. The type of patient telemedicine or provider teleconsultation performed varied greatly across the 37 studies, with several different diagnoses or care situations included. Research designs used in the studies were less robust, with all studies using primary data for assessing physician satisfaction but only one study providing any type of multivariate analysis of physician satisfaction with telehealth.

Conclusion: The results of this review support the observation that physicians across different specialties, geographic locations, practice locations, and care situations appear satisfied with engaging in telehealth for both patient care and consultations with other physicians. The research on telehealth should be enhanced, given how ubiquitous telehealth has become due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This enhancement should include larger physician sample sizes in studies of telehealth satisfaction; more research focused on telehealth in the primary care setting; and the types of virtual modalities that have become more commonplace for physicians to use due to the Covid-19 pandemic.