3.2.1. Benefits of Remote Work

Flexibility regarding working hours and the workplace has repeatedly been reported in the literature. Cioffi's study has found that nearly 60% of psychotherapists reported greater flexibility [54]. In Koch and Guhres's research, physicians expressed that digital care visits allow "flexibility to work from home" and "flexibility regarding working time" [13]. Hardy et al., in their mixed-methods study, found that therapists providing teletherapy for couples felt similarly "Flexibility in scheduling and location" [45]. Björndell & Premberg have

found that "the flexibility of work and the regulated assignment online were positive for the physicians' work situation and well-being" [39]. Sugarman et al. have also discovered that therapists identify "scheduling/flexibility" as an advantage [46]. The same findings mentioned in Fernemark et al. study—flexibility with work hours and the ability to choose where to work from, were considered advantages by general practitioners in Sweden [37].

Less travel time and costs were also mentioned as benefits in several publications. Physicians from three studies think the use of digital care visits saves commuting time [39,41,46]. This plays a role in enhancing healthcare professionals' quality of life: "saving travel time, being present at home, and participating in family activities, etc., was considered beneficial" [39].

Digital care visits provide flexibility which contributes to healthcare professionals feeling less stressed and more at ease. A small percentage of psychotherapists in an Italian study agreed that they felt more relaxed during online sessions [54]. Björndell & Premberg wrote that "working from home was appreciated by the physicians because it let them work in peace, feel less stressed, and enjoy being at home" [39].

Sugarman et al. reported that digital care visit "supports personal safety concerns, including COVID-19 risk" [46], and Björndell & Premberg mentioned "reduced risk of infection transmission" in their paper [39].

#### 3.2.2. Efficiency

It was indicated in several studies that working with digital care visits is more efficient in the sense that it saves time and increases productivity. Kemp et al. [47], Koch & Guhres [13], as well as Saiyed et al. [48] studies have shown that digital visits took less time than in-person visits, according to healthcare professionals. A total of eight of twenty-eight selected studies indicated that digital care visits increase productivity or efficiency. Healthcare professionals felt that by using telemedicine, they could be more productive [41,54], more structured and efficient due to greater focus during the sessions [49]. The use of technology made the visits more efficient [35], meaning that the patients were prepared, and physicians could easily end the video calls after the consultation and consult another patient right away [47,59]. Some physicians reported that it was easier to consult patients via digital care visits as their cases were simpler than those in the physical visits, making it possible to provide consultation to more patients [37,39].

#### 3.2.3. Satisfaction

Overall, healthcare professionals, regardless of specialization or location, had mostly positive experiences with digital care visits, ranging from at least slightly [45] to highly satisfied [35,40,44], as stated in nearly half of the selected publications. Professionals felt that digital care visits have a positive impact on their work environment [13], were generally happy with their experience [41,43,55,58,59], and enjoyed it [48].

The usability of digital visits varied due to the use of different platforms. Some studies stated that systems used for digital care visits were easy [41,44], and twelve out of twenty-eight studies found that they were quite straightforward and easy to use [13,39,41,43,46,48,50,55,59–61]. Several publications revealed that healthcare professionals were satisfied with the system/platform itself [13,47,58] and/or appreciated its features [46].

Regarding the interaction between healthcare professionals and patients, healthcare professionals in six studies expressed having a positive experience regarding patient-professional interaction. Clinicians could discuss patients' issues, assess their condition, and offer treatment advice effectively. In many cases, an in-person visit was unnecessary [39,43,48,55,58].

#### 3.2.4. Convenient, Accessible Care and Saved Resources for Patients

Increased flexibility and greater accessibility are some of the benefits of digital care visits. Digital care visits allow patients to schedule visits at their convenience [13,39,46,58,59]. Patients with responsibilities for, e.g., caring for their children, do not need to organize childcare for visiting healthcare professionals [46,51,52,57]. Digital care visits offer high-quality medical care for patients from rural or remote areas where such care is inaccessible [13,39,41,52,58].

In addition, patients who are homebound due to their medical conditions or those who simply do not have the means or wish to travel to a health care facility benefit from having their visit digitally [46,51,57,59]. Saving travel costs was mentioned multiple times in eight reviewed articles [13,46,51,52,57–59]. Moreover, patients feel more at ease when they are surrounded by the environment and people that they are used to, such as their family or their pets [39,45,58,59]. Digital care visits were emphasized in mental health-related studies as well. Studies showed that patients tended to be more open, feel more secure, and often shared more with their therapists during the online sessions from their homes [45,46,49]. Having remote visits from patients' homes allows for better family member inclusion [51], knowing more about their condition, and caring for them [51]. Hinman et al. study on remote physiotherapy found that patients felt empowered when doing exercises at home. Digital care visits increased their adherence to the program and allowed them to learn correct and safe exercise techniques [59]. Patients gained more confidence in performing rehabilitation exercises at home [59] and took more initiative to care for themselves and be more self-reliant [60]. They even could form stronger therapeutic alliances or cooperation with therapists [45,46].

Furthermore, by having remote health care visits, patients avoided transmission of and exposure to communicable diseases, which enhanced their safety and contributed to controlling the spread of infectious diseases [39,51]. Overall, clinicians from several studies indicated they felt their patients were satisfied with digital care visits, their complaints were addressed, and they got the necessary care [37,38,48,56].
