Abstract
Objective: To demonstrate the feasibility of telemedicine in an outpatient, university-based epilepsy clinic and to assess the patient and provider satisfaction with telemedicine.
Background: Patients with epilepsy have unique barriers to accessing medical care, especially secondary to driving restrictions due to seizure risk. Telemedicine enables providers to offer care remotely in a cost-effective, convenient manner. Telemedicine in various forms has demonstrated good outcomes in several patient populations and in many clinical settings. We conducted a feasibility study looking at use of telemedicine for patients with epilepsy.
Design/Methods: Eight consecutive adult epilepsy patients were prospectively enrolled in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) outpatient epilepsy clinic. For the purposes of the feasibility study, the patients who were non-English speaking, had intellectual disability without caregiver availability were excluded. After each telemedicine visit a standardized patient satisfaction survey was automatically sent to the patient to assess willingness to participate again, technical issues, and satisfaction with the clinic experience and medical provider. A provider satisfaction survey was obtained at the end of the study. Other outcome measures included no-show rate, distance traveled, and clinic cost.
Results: All patients who filled out the survey were satisfied with their session and would choose telemedicine over face-to-face visits in the future. The telemedicine visits had 100% show rate and decreased encounter time. Cost analysis demonstrated no significant change in reimbursements while a UCLA healthcare system saved $28 on each telemedicine visit compared to an in-person clinic visit.
Conclusions: Telemedicine is a feasible alternative for epilepsy patients and satisfied to patients and providers. Telemedicine met the needs of patients who lived far from the clinic and facilitated care for patients without driving privileges. In the future, we plan to look at impact of epilepsy telemedicine on rates of emergency department visits and urgent hospital admissions.
Disclosure: Dr. Reider-Demer has nothing to disclose. Dr. Eliashiv has nothing to disclose. Dr. Stern has nothing to disclose. Dr. Keselman has nothing to disclose. Dr. Nuwer has nothing to disclose.
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