Background
Telemedicine video visits were offered by our division to all patients
with previously scheduled appointments that were cancelled due to
COVID-19 and to all subsequent patients requesting a pulmonary
appointment in our general and subspecialty pulmonary programs. The
first telemedicine video visits completed by the division of pulmonary
and sleep medicine at CHOP began on March 24, 2020. In order to maintain
HIPPA compliance and provide ease for families, we utilized Vidyo, the
video software package available with our electronic health record,
EPIC.
In order to gauge effectiveness, satisfaction and areas needing
improvement during this rapid period of telemedicine implementation, we
constructed patient and provider surveys to capture responses related to
the pulmonary telemedicine experience. The purpose of collecting this
data was clinical quality improvement and did Internal Review Board
review was not required. All data were collected in a de-identified
manner.