COVID-19: pivoting from in-person to virtual orthopedic surgical evaluation

In March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated substantial downscaling of office-based orthopedic surgical practice. To address the ongoing need for patient assessment, surgical practices pivoted from in-person appointments to a virtual platform. Patients (n = 1823), contacted by telephone (82%) or by video (18%), judged this new approach as excellent or very good in 71% of telephone contacts, and in 84% of those successfully interviewed by video. For future meetings, 4 of 5 patients preferred virtual rather than in-person contact. Patients whose round-trip travel time for in-person appointments was under 2 hours were twice as likely to prefer future in-person contact as those more than 2 hours away. Patients who had far to travel or who used walking aids were more likely to travel accompanied. Acknowledging that patients value both videoconferencing and telephone contact, surgeons should offer virtual visits as an alternative to in-person assessments. Patients need to have access to reliable Internet. Finally, telemedicine is environmentally friendly.