Comparison of Telehealth Readiness Assessment among Healthcare Professionals Working in Public and Private Hospitals at Peshawar, Pakistan A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study

Background : Telehealth, referred to as telemedicine or e-health, is the provision of medical services remotely using a telecommunications network enabling medical professionals to assess, diagnose, and treat patients without having to see them in person. Moreover, telehealth is extremely important in low-income nations like Pakistan, where the percentage of the population living in rural areas is estimated by the World Bank to be 63%, compared to 37% in urban areas (Bilal et al., 2022). However, healthcare professionals’ readiness assessment for using telehealth plays a vital role in the successful implementation of telehealth services in the healthcare system. Methods and Material: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in the public and private Hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan. A total of 305 healthcare professionals were selected through a convenience sampling technique. The data were entered and analyzed through the SPSS version 26. A validated and reliable tool with Cronbach’s alpha 0.91 was used. Data were presented in frequency and percentages for categorical variables, whereas; Mean and Standard Deviation for the continuous variables. Moreover, an ANOVA test was applied to compare the mean difference in telehealth readiness, a Chi-square for the association among healthcare professionals for the use of telehealth. Independent sample T-test was also applied to compare the telehealth readiness score in public and private Hospitals. Results: There was a significant difference found in the Telehealth Readiness Scores of Healthcare Professionals concerning utilizing telehealth in their practice (p-value 0.003). Moreover, there was no significant difference found in the Telehealth Readiness Scores of Healthcare Professionals concerning their gender, age, working sector, experience, and current job title. Conclusion: The present study revealed that nurses and medical laboratory technologists were more ready for telehealth care than doctors and pharmacists. A significant association were between participants' professions and their telehealth readiness scores.