Telemedicine Consultation: Geriatric Patients' Attitude at Primary Care Clinics in Security Forces Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: Telemedicine has been adopted to deliver healthcare services around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Telemedicine was widely used due to its safety in providing healthcare services and screening for COVID-19 symptoms. Objectives: To assess telemedicine consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic at primary care clinics for follow-up geriatric patients. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional survey-dependent study was conducted at Security Forces Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July to August 2021. Participants were selected using a non-randomized voluntary response sampling technique. Data were collected over telephonic interviews and analyzed using SPSS program version 23. Results: A total of 518 respondents were included in the study. We found 90.73% of the participants thought that first time they have been consulted as a patient on the Telephone. And 91.89% of the participants thought that the majority agreed that it made healthcare services easier during the COVID-19 pandemic. their desire to in the future to have telephone Consultation (71.62%). Showed that the average attitude toward Telephone consulting satisfaction score of respondents was 6.5 +/- 1.0, demonstrating that most participants revealed a good level of Attitude toward telephonic consultations during the pandemic. Satisfaction scores, gender, age and nationality of participants did not differ significantly. Conclusion: The study concluded that geriatric patients had an excellent attitude toward telemedicine consultation during the pandemic at the Hospital's primary care clinic. Further studies are needed to address factors associated with attitudes toward telemedicine.