Endoscopy-related Phone Consultation During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Endoscopy-related Phone Consultation During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Impact on Attendance and Patient/Consultant Perspectives From a Tertiary Australian Hospital

The aim of this study is to evaluate patient and consultant experiences with phone consultations for endoscopy-related outpatient appointments during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Reflux, Gastroesophageal; Colon Disease; Colon Polyp; Varices, Esophageal
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: None - NA

Detailed Description

Telephone consultations as a method for telehealth do not provide visual cues and limit interpretation of visual signs such as visualization of skin lesions. However, the need of such feedback is almost non-existent for endoscopy-related consultations as their purpose is focused. The main foci of endoscopy-related outpatient clinics are two: 1 - inform and consent the patient for an endoscopic procedure that is to be done in the near future; 2 - explain the results of a recent procedure already performed and which has a copy provided to the patient. Therefore, phone consultations might be a good fit for endoscopy-related outpatient clinics. The practicalities and indications for the use of phone consults has been described by van Galen & Car (2018) and fit the above description.

Patients will be invited to participate only after the consultation have been finalised and all questions regarding the endoscopic procedure to be done/that was done have been clarified. Patients and consultants will fill questionnaires to evaluate the phone consultation.

The primary outcome will the the comparison of "failed to attend" (FTA) occurrences compared to a similar period of the past year. Secondary outcomes will be patients' and consultants' satisfaction with the phone consultation.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 186

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Australia
  • Victoria
    • Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3084
      • Austin Health

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients that have been submitted or were ordered any endoscopic procedure (e.g. capsule endoscopy, enteroscopy, endoscopic mucosal resection) within Austin Health - Victoria - Australia.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients booked for an outpatient consultation in the Post-Endoscopy clinic or Advanced Endoscopy clinic
• Consultation determined to be held over the phone as per preventive measures due to the COVID-19 outbreak
• Age > 18 years
• Ability to give informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Phone consultation done with a relative as per patient's preference or inability to talk over the phone
• Patient that is deemed as confused/not able to understand
• Unwilling/unable to participate in the post-consultation survey

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Phone consult group; Information collected prospectively on FTA patients and questionnaire (satisfaction)	Other: None - NA; Observational study
Face-to-face consult group; Information collected retrospectively on FTA patients	Other: None - NA; Observational study

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Failed to attend patients	percentage of patients that did not answer phone calls (at least 3 calls) or with documented FTA for the retrospective group.	2 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient satisfaction with the phone consult	Assessed through an online/hardcopy questionnaire based on previous studies on telehealth (adapted from Barsom et al. 2020 - MSF and PAT-VC questionnaires). These are mostly Likert-scale response mode statements.	2 months
Consultant satisfaction with the phone consult	Assessed through an online/hardcopy questionnaire based on previous studies on telehealth (adapted from Barsom et al. 2020). These are mostly Likert-scale response mode statements.	2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Austin Health
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sujievvan Chandran, MD, Consultant gastroenterologist

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Barsom EZ, Jansen M, Tanis PJ, van de Ven AWH, Blusse van Oud-Alblas M, Buskens CJ, Bemelman WA, Schijven MP. Video consultation during follow up care: effect on quality of care and patient- and provider attitude in patients with colorectal cancer. Surg Endosc. 2021 Mar;35(3):1278-1287. doi: 10.1007/s00464-020-07499-3. Epub 2020 Mar 20.
• van Galen LS, Car J. Telephone consultations. BMJ. 2018 Mar 29;360:k1047. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k1047. No abstract available.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 29, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): July 3, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 10, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 10, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): April 14, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 9, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 8, 2020
• Last Verified: July 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Digestive System Diseases; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Liver Diseases; Intestinal Diseases; Esophageal Motility Disorders; Deglutition Disorders; Esophageal Diseases; Hypertension, Portal; Gastroesophageal Reflux; Esophageal and Gastric Varices; Colonic Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 38839

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: For ethical purposes as per the approval of this study as a quality improvement study (and hence exempted of formal HREC evaluation). Data should be shared outside Austin Health only through grouped data in conferences and journal papers.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No