Peer-reviewed article
“I rather talk on the phone”: Factors affecting compliance with outpatient visits during COVID-19 Pandemic
Arain F, Motamedi N, Hassan N, Zamiri A, Rashid A et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study compared psychiatric outpatient care compliance for children and adolescents aged 5-18 during the COVID-19 pandemic when telepsychiatry was used versus before the pandemic with in-person visits. Telepsychiatry significantly increased follow-up compliance and reduced emergency room visits and inpatient admissions. The findings suggest that remote mental health care can be an effective tool for improving treatment adherence in young people.
Key points
- Telepsychiatry significantly increased follow-up compliance compared to pre-pandemic in-person care (P-value=0.04)
- Emergency room and crisis visits decreased significantly with telehealth implementation (P-value=0.02)
- Inpatient psychiatric unit admissions decreased significantly during the telepsychiatry period (P-value=0.02)
- Study compared 111 patients from July-December 2019 with 141 patients from July-December 2020
Limitations
This is a retrospective chart review without randomization, so causation cannot be definitively established. The study does not report on clinical outcomes, symptom improvement, or other quality-of-care measures beyond compliance and service utilization.
Abstract
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic presented a global public-health crisis that demanded healthcare to adapt at an unprecedented pace. While challenging, it also created opportunities for the advancement of novel electronic-treatment-modalities. Telepsychiatry has emerged as an effective method to ensure continuity of care and ensure social distancing.1 Studies indicate that mental-health patients have higher rates of noncompliance to follow-up, 1 thus finding means to increase compliance is critical. Objectives The objectives of this study are to determine the impact of telepsychiatry on compliance to follow-up and to identify numbers of psychiatric/medical emergency-room visits, most common contributing factors for admission, and compliance in terms of diagnosis. Methods This IRB approved study is a retrospective chart-review, that aims to study children/adolescents (5-18 years) who presented to the Child&Adolescent-Psychiatry Outpatient-clinic from July-December 2020 and engaged in telepsychiatry, compared to a group of patients presented in July-December 2019-Pre-Covid19-Pandemic. A review of clinical characteristics including diagnosis, demographic information, medication, and treatment compliance will be compared as well as admissions to inpatient-psychiatry/emergency-room visits. Results Our total sample (N=252) included patients from 2019-Pre-COVID19 (N=111) and 2020 Telehealth during COVID19-Pandemic (N=141). Our data analysis using SPSF and T-test has shown that Telehealth has significantly increased follow-up compliance (Two-tailed P-value=0.04); 2019-Pre-COVID outreach mean=0.06, 2020-Telehealth-during COVID outreach mean=0.02); significantly decreased ER/CPEP visits (P-value=0.02), and decreased In-patient-unit admissions (P-value=0.02). Conclusions According to the presented study, the incorporation of telepsychiatry has increased the compliance to psychiatric-care in outpatient and decreased the emergency-room visits and inpatient admission. Sufficient resources and steps need to be taken to further strengthen telehealth services. Disclosure No significant relationships.