Design: Retrospective cohort study comparing satisfaction scores of patients who had virtual visits versus in-person visits.

Setting: An urban quaternary care center from 4/2015-7/2023.

Patients or Participants: We included patients who had the same type of visit, either virtual or in-office, before and after surgery, and responded to the surveys on both time points.

Interventions: Eight patient satisfaction questions were analyzed to assess satisfaction with the visit, provider, and office staff.

Measurements and Main Results: The study included 349 patients, 262 in the virtual group and 87 in the in-person group. Patients who had virtual visits were younger (37.2 vs. 42.2 years, p<0.003) and less likely to be smokers (1.8% vs 8.0%, p<0.001). Patients who underwent hysteroscopy (4.2% vs. 16.1%, p<0.001) or robotic surgery (1.5% vs. 10.3%, p<0.001) were more likely to be seen in the office, while patients who underwent laparoscopic hysterectomy (21.8% vs. 33.3%, p=0.004) or endometriosis excision (20.2% vs. 18.4%, p<0.001) were more likely to be seen virtually. There was no difference in total hospital admission length.

Patient satisfaction surveys for patients seen virtually had significantly higher overall scores for the facility (9.46 vs. 8.94, p<0.001), they were more likely to recommend the practice to their friends and family (9.56 vs 8.88, p<0.001), and felt more that staff did everything possible to help with their discomfort (3.69 vs 3.44, p<0.001). There was no significant difference noted for all other survey questions.

Conclusion: We found that compared to patients who had in-person visits, those who had virtual visits before and after gynecologic surgery reported higher satisfaction scores when asked about the medical facility and the medical staff, while other satisfaction scores were comparable.