Abstract

Background: Telemedicine refers to the delivery of clinical care by using intercommunication technology. There is very limited number of studies undertaken to assess patient’s perspective towards implementing telemedicine in anesthesia and the effect of travel and distance on the patient’s quality of life. The objective of the current study was to assess patients‘perspective towards implementing telemedicine in anesthesia and the effect of travel and distance on the patient’s quality of life.
Methodology: A quantitative, observational cross-sectional study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the period from June 2018 to August 2018. The study was carried out on postoperative patients using a self-administrated questionnaire.
Results: The study included 217 participants, 83.9% were living in Riyadh, there were 50.7% reporting low telemedicine satisfaction, whereas 63.1% had high satisfaction till their last appointment. Subjects with age of 20-30 years and income of 5000-10000 SR were significantly associated with low telemedicine satisfaction (p-value=0.03, 0.01; respectively).
Conclusion: There were a good perception and attitude towards telemedicine among participants, with a low level of satisfaction.

Key words: Postoperative, telemedicine, anesthesia