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Most Providers Satisfied With Pandemic Shift to Telepsychiatry
Clinicians who shifted to telepsychiatry in 2020 and 2021 reported high overall satisfaction with remote care, according to a study in the Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.
“Based on our findings, we recommend that clinicians who are open-minded and have appropriate telepsychiatry training available are likely to be able to use this technology to extend access to care—regardless of their age or prior telepsychiatry experience,” researchers wrote.
To gauge how psychiatry providers adapted to the pandemic-driven shift to telepsychiatry, researchers posted an anonymous provider survey on social media and professional listservs. Complete surveys were submitted by 333 providers with degrees spanning MD, DO, PhD, PsyD, MSW, master’s degree in music or art therapy, and master’s degree in psychology or counseling. All participants reported providing psychiatric or psychotherapeutic services over telehealth platforms in 2020 and 2021. Nearly 60% were younger than age 50, 70% were physicians, and a third had received telehealth training. About 60% worked in consultation-liaison psychiatry.
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In all, 85.9% of respondents expressed overall satisfaction with telepsychiatry. Having a general comfort with technology predicted satisfaction, according to the study, but experiencing technical issues, a priori skepticism, being male, and treating LGBTQ+ patients negatively correlated with provider satisfaction.
Having training in telehealth and general comfort with technology were associated with respondents’ subjective ability to diagnose and treat patients adequately via telepsychiatry. Meanwhile, treating LGBTQ+ patients or inpatients was negatively associated with perceived ability to diagnose and treat adequately solely using telehealth.
Providers comfortable with technology and those who were not physicians were more likely to report patient satisfaction with telepsychiatry. On the other hand, encountering technical issues and treating inpatients were negatively associated with patient satisfaction as reported by respondents.
“Respondents who treat patients identifying as sexual and gender minorities reported significantly lower overall satisfaction and lower completeness; however, patient satisfaction by proxy was not different in this group,” researchers pointed out. “We speculate that these differences are around privacy concerns.”
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