Participant quotes related to the disadvantages of virtual surgical consultation
| Themes and subthemes | Quote |
|---|---|
| Not as personal | “I find him kind of hard to read just over the phone.” P39 “Even like the Pexip [video platform] appointment is preferable ‘cause then you can actually see the person who’s going to be providing you care. Otherwise it’s just a voice on the end of the phone.” P60 |
| Receiving bad news | “I’m like 6 months into cancer treatment, I have — Dr. [name] is the first doctor I have laid eyes on in person. So it’s been a, it’s not a good process when you’re going through something that’s traumatizing it’s not a good process.” P60 |
| No previous relationship | “I guess I was nervous because I had never met him, didn’t know nothing about him.” P27 “… it helps having met the doctor before and having a kind of relationship and [name] was in the hospital steadily for 5 months and he saw this doctor quite often. So he already knew the doctor so that made a difference as well.” P3 |
| Surgeon was not able to perform physical exam | “I was quite satisfied with my initial consult via telephone, but post-op, would prefer an in-person appointment simply because as a patient I may not be able to describe my concerns accurately and having a surgeon see, touch or feel would make me feel more comfortable that there was no misunderstanding or communication error.” P11 “I may be describing a situation or concern with the wrong vocabulary that won’t be caught via phone call.” P11 “… it doesn’t work well for everything…I mean they’re satisfactory to a point depends on what you have wrong with you. Sometimes you just have to be seen because it’s impossible to explain.” P50 |
| Not given a specific appointment time | “The remote consultation was more difficult mentally because I didn’t know when the call would occur. Additionally, I wasn’t as prepared for the discussion due to my day-to-day distractions. Child at home with me versus on my own at doctor appointment. I ended up missing the initial call because I happened to be out of the house.” P11 “So caught off-guard, often in the middle of a meeting see that I have to take a call. So, it would’ve been nice to have been given an appointment time because it did feel frenetic.” P60 |
| Not prepared to ask questions | “… the downfall with that is I couldn’t ask the questions I wanted to ask. There were so many questions that after we hung up that I thought, why didn’t I?” P7 “If I had an appointment seeing him before, I would’ve had the list of questions with me. I was caught at a time where I didn’t have the questions with me …” P24 |
| Issues with technology | “Only to the extent that the video didn’t work, the problem that I have now could’ve been assessed earlier.” P3 |