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.