Patient Compliance of Patient Reported Outcome Measures in Measurement-Based Care After an Abrupt Shift to Telehealth During COVID-19

Measurement Based Care (MBC) is considered to be an evidence-based practice. Despite its well-documented efficacy, it is underutilized in the clinical community for various reasons, including clinician and patient buy-in. A key component to the successful implementation of MBC is the routine administration of Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). There is a lack of research describing the utilization of MBC in a telehealth setting. As technological innovations continue, a greater number of clinics are offering telemental health services. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a majority of underprepared clinics to begin implementing telehealth. The present study sought to evaluate patient compliance with PROMs in MBC after an abrupt shift to telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were collected from a clinical population at a community based psychological training clinic. The participants were separated into groups: modality 1 (in-person services, n = 17), modality 2 (telehealth services, n = 17), and modality 3 (hybrid of modalities 1 and 2, n = 10), to assess the effect of modality on mean PROM compliance. The participants were separated into groups adult (≥18 years of age, n = 23) and child (<18 years of age, n = 17), to assess the effect of maturity on mean PROM compliance. Results showed that mean PROM compliance was significantly higher in the in-person modality than the telehealth modality. Results also showed that PROM compliance was significantly higher in adults than in children. There was not a significant interaction effect of modality and maturity on PROM compliance. Additionally, results showed that PROM compliance decreased significantly after the switch from in-person services to telehealth services in the hybrid modality. These findings show that clinics may face significant barriers to the implementation of MBC after a sudden shift to telehealth caused by an unforeseen stressful event.