Abstract
Background The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the rapid adoption of telemedicine across medical specialties, including orthopedics. This study aimed to assess patient satisfaction with orthopedic telemedicine consultations and analyze the efficiency and limitations of this approach during the pandemic. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 522 patients who underwent telephone consultations for orthopedic care between May 2020 and January 2021. Consultations were performed by a single surgeon using the electronic software 'Proxima' and self-designed Microsoft Word templates for documentation. Patient satisfaction was assessed at the end of each consultation. Data on consultation duration, documentation time, the need for face-to-face follow-up, and the impact on surgical decision-making were collected. Results The overall patient satisfaction rate with telemedicine consultations was 77.9%. However, 65.3% of patients required subsequent face-to-face assessment, primarily for physical examination (48.2%) or discussion of investigation results (13.4%). Among 88 patients already listed for surgery, 38.6% chose to delay their operations due to COVID-19 concerns. The average telephone consultation duration was 4.9 minutes (range: 2-16 minutes), with 86.7% of clinical documentation completed in less than 5 minutes. Patients who had surgery and did not experience any complications exhibited the highest level of satisfaction at 92.3%. Conclusions The research we conducted provides evidence that telemedicine can be useful in the management of orthopedic patients, especially those who have undergone surgery. Nevertheless, continued face-to-face evaluation remains vital in orthopedics due to its high rates of necessity. The use of electronic templates and software for documentation proved to be highly efficient, significantly reducing the time required for clinical documentation and potentially allowing for more patient interactions. As health systems progress with advances made possible by pandemics and other future challenges, it is likely that an ideal combination of remote delivery via telemedicine and traditional means will be a safer, more effective, and efficient way of providing orthopedic services.