Telehealth utilization among Egyptian population and health institutional readiness: An exploratory study

Objective: This study aimed to assess the public's perspectives and the health institutions' readiness for telehealth utilization in Egypt. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was employed, and data were collected from a convenient sample of 800 Egyptian citizens and 26 nursing administrators and information technology personnel from 16 governmental hospitals and 10 private hospitals between January and March 2022. The Egyptian community utilization of telehealth questionnaire and the telemedicine hospital readiness assessment were used to collect the data. Results: The results revealed that 35.1% of the general Egyptian population used telehealth services and 43% expressed willingness to use them in future. As perceived by the general Egyptian population, the most prevalent barriers to telehealth utilization were communication barriers (97.6%), lack of confidence in health professionals (77.6%), technological limitations (72.5%), the need for physical examination (25%), and privacy concerns (10%). Regarding hospital readiness, 42% of governmental hospitals were not taking any initiative to implement telehealth services, and 15.4% were at the beginner level, meaning that some steps had been taken. However, the hospital was still far from being able to implement telehealth services. In contrast, private hospitals were either at the beginner or advanced level. Conclusion: Although the use of telehealth services in Egypt has increased, there is a need to address the barriers to public utilization and improve hospitals' readiness to implement telehealth services to enhance public usage.