MEASURING PATIENT SATISFACTION IN VIRTUAL CLINIC OF PALLIATIVE CARE UNIT IN KING FAISAL SPECIALIZED HOSPITAL & RESEARCH CENTER, JEDDAH, KSA- 2023: A PRETEST RETROSPECTIVE CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine utilization has been accelerated and offered servies to palliative care patients often facing problems with travel and availability of specialists. and provided access for palliative care patients often facing challenges with travel and limited specialist availability. Objectives: To assess the satisfaction of patients with virtual clinic of palliative care unit as well as to explore their attitudes and preferences towards telemedicine services. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among all adult patients attending virtual palliative clinic, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in (KFSHRC), Jeddah from 1 Jan 2023 until 31 August 2023. Online validated Arabic verbal questionnaire consists of four parts: socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, satisfaction with virtual clinic consultation on different element, attitude towards telemedicine service and assessement of overall experiences and preference of telemedicine service. Results: The study included 60 patients. More than half of them (56.6%) aged between 46 and 55 years and 60% of them were females. Most of patients (65%) had only one experience with telemedicine. Overall, the total percentage of patients` satisfaction score ranged between 58.18 and 100% with median (interquartile range) of 100 (90-100) while the total percentage of patients` attitude towards telemedicine score ranged between 40 and 100% with a median (interquartile range) of 100 (80-100). None of the studied factors (age, sex and frequency of using telemedicine) was significantly associated with patients` satisfaction and attitude owards telemedicine service. Conclusion: Patients` satisfaction with virtual clinic of palliative care services was overall enouraging in the present study and calls more attention from the higher authorities. Keywords: Satisfation, Palliative care, Telemedicine, Virtual clinic, Saudi Arabia