Telemedicine Adoption in an NCI-Designated Cancer Center During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Report on Patient Experience of Care

Background: Patients with cancer require timely access to care so that healthcare providers can prepare an optimal treatment plan with significant implications for quality of life and mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred rapid adoption of telemedicine in oncology, but study of patient experience of care with telemedicine in this popula-tion has been limited. We assessed overall patient experience of care with telemedicine at an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Cen-ter during the COVID-19 pandemic and examined changes in patient experience over time. Patients and Methods: This was a retrospec-tive study of outpatient oncology patients who received treatment at Moffitt Cancer Center. Press Ganey surveys were used to assess pa-tient experience. Data from patients with appointments between April 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, were analyzed. Patient experience was compared between telemedicine and in-person visits, and patient experience with telemedicine over time was described. Results: A total of 33,318 patients reported Press Ganey data for in-person visits, and 5,950 reported Press Ganey data for telemedicine visits. Relative to patients with in-person visits, more patients with telemedicine visits gave higher satisfaction ratings for access (62.5% vs 75.8%, respectively) and care provider concern (84.2% vs 90.7%, respectively) (P<.001). When adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, sex, insurance, and clinic type, telemedicine visits consistently outperformed in-person visits over time regarding access and care provider concern (P<.001). There were no significant changes over time in satisfaction with telemedicine visits regarding access, care provider concern, telemedicine technol-ogy, or overall assessment (P ..05). Conclusions: In this study, a large oncology dataset showed that telemedicine resulted in better patient experience of care in terms of access and care provider concern com-pared with in-person visits. Patient experience of care with telemedi-cine visits did not change over time, suggesting that implementing telemedicine was effective.