Patients’ experiences of a Virtual Fracture Assessment Clinic Pathway: A qualitative study

This is the first qualitative study exploring patients' experiences of a complete virtual fracture assessment clinic pathway. Patients' experiences may be improved through patient education on the pathway process and providing standardised injury-specific patient information documentation. Regular communication between different healthcare professionals involved in the pathway may reduce conflicting advice. Developing an opt-in physiotherapy service and providing patients with a standardised text message informing patients when their virtual consultation will occur may also improve patients' experience of the pathway. Establishing a referral pathway with a fracture liaison service is also recommended to further enhance a virtual fracture assessment clinic pathway. Future research is needed to investigate how therapeutic relationships can be developed when care is delivered virtually and to explore the experiences of patient cohorts who were not included in this study.