Telehealth Research, Reports and Surveys
KeyCare: Consumers Prefer Telehealth Over In-office Visits for Routine Care, Medication Refills & Behavioral Health (9/28) - According to a survey from KeyCare, consumers continue to express a strong preference for telehealth over in-office care for several types of visits. the majority reported participating in multiple telehealth visits over the prior year and shared that their favorite aspects of telehealth are time savings, quick access to care, and cost savings. Additionally, 84 percent of consumers reported seeing their own regular doctor or an associate of that doctor for telehealth, while 78 percent said that their virtual provider had access to their long-term medical records during the visit.
Milbank Memorial Fund: Assessing the Impact of Medicaid Telehealth Policy Change on Equitable Access to Telehealth Services in North Carolina (9/26) - Telehealth offer rates and use in North Carolina Medicaid varied by race and ethnicity during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic despite more flexible policies and digital infrastructure investments in rural areas. Improving equitable access to and delivery of telehealth services may include strategies such as maintaining broad telehealth access postpandemic, creating remote “hubs” where patients can access secure technology, and harnessing benefits such as digital technologies to broaden access. Addressing health equity, in particular, may require evaluating strategies such as ensuring providers offer telehealth services to all patients and complete implicit bias training.
The Permanente Journal: Benefits and Challenges of Remote Patient Monitoring as Perceived by Health Care Practitioners: A Systematic Review (9/22) - Remote patient monitoring (RPM), or telemonitoring, offers ways for health care practitioners to gather real-time information on the physiological conditions of patients. As telemedicine, and thus telemonitoring, is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s society, understanding the practitioners’ opinions is crucial. This systematic review evaluates the perspectives and experiences of health care practitioners with telemonitoring technologies. The review found common benefits included continuous monitoring of patients to provide prompt care, improvement of patient self-care, efficient communication, increased patient confidence, visualization of health trends, and greater patient education. Challenges comprised increased workload, higher patient anxiety, data inaccuracy, disorienting technology, financial issues, and privacy concerns.
Kaiser Permanente: Most Telehealth Users Are Interested in Using It Again (9/21) - A survey of 1,000 Kaiser Permanente Northern California patients who used a phone or video visit to see their primary care doctor in 2020 found that most were satisfied with their visit, and two-thirds are interested in using telemedicine again. The survey, published in the journal Medical Care, results suggest that once patients tried a phone or video visit, and found it useful or valuable, they would use it again for convenience. Most (85 percent) of respondents who had a recent video or telephone visit said the visit addressed their health needs, and 80 percent agreed that telemedicine addressed their health needs as well as an in-person visit when a physical exam is not needed.
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