Virtual On Treatment Visits: Implementation, Patient Perspectives, Barriers, Limitations, Benefits and Opportunities.

Purpose To report our initial experience with weekly tele-video “virtual” on treatment visits (vOTVs), describe the logistics of implementation, report results of patient and physician surveys, and discuss barriers, limitations, and benefits of vOTVs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method Virtual OTVs were piloted at two centers, and within one week expanded to 4 additional centers. Patients participating in vOTVs were surveyed about their satisfaction with vOTVs, quality of vOTVs, and confidence in their physician’s ability to manage their care through vOTVs, as well as their support of, and preferences related to vOTVs. Participating physicians were also surveyed about their comfort and satisfaction with vOTVs. Medical Directors at non-participating centers within our network were surveyed regarding their reasoning for not using vOTVs. Results In week 1, 72 of 81 patients between 2 pilot centers were seen using vOTVs. In week 2, 189 of 211 patients were seen using vOTVs at 6 centers. Patient satisfaction and confidence in their physician’s ability to address their concerns through the vOTV was high at 4.75 on a 5-point scale. Patients were overall very supportive (4.67) and found the quality of the visits to be as good as, or better, than their prior in person weekly OTV (3.75). Physicians participating in the vOTVs felt very comfortable in their ability to manage patients though this platform (5.0), and on average did not report any difference in terms of efficiency of visits (3.0). Conclusions Virtual OTVs were easy to implement and well received by patients and participating physicians. Our experience suggests that vOTVs can be implemented rapidly using available technology, and with a high degree of patient and physician satisfaction during this pandemic with similar efficiency to in person OTVs.