J Am Board Fam Med
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The COVID-19 pandemic has made innovative solutions to providing safe, effective care paramount. eConsult allows primary care providers to access specialist advice for their patients without necessitating an in-person visit. This study aims to explain how an eConsult service adapted to providing care for COVID-19 patients and examine its impact on patient care. ⋯ Our study demonstrated the effectiveness of rapidly adapting eConsult for COVID-19 care and supports similar action for other services.
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"Beyond Just a Supplement": Administrators' Visions for the Future of Virtual Primary Care Services.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented adoption and implementation of virtual primary care services, and little is known about whether and how virtual care services will be provided after the pandemic ends. We aim to identify how administrators at health care organizations perceive the future of virtual primary care services. ⋯ Health care organizations are considering how virtual primary care services can be used to improve patient outcomes, access to care, and convenience of care. To implement and sustain virtual primary care services, health care organizations will need long-term support from regulators and payers.
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We studied perceptions of patients who receive telemedicine services in the fee-for-service setting of an academic medical center's family medicine department. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate patient sentiments on both experiential and financial aspects of telemedicine primary care with copayment collection. ⋯ Our findings suggest that telemedicine is a viable alternative to in-person visits and that most patients find a copayment reasonable. The findings suggest that telemedicine offers convenience and consistency with continuity and corroborate previous studies investigating telemedicine viewpoints. Payors should consider copayment in detail when designing telehealth benefits to ensure they do not become a barrier in seeking care.
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The COVID-19 pandemic led to wide adoption of telehealth in primary care. The impact of telehealth on subsequent follow-up visit volume is mixed. This study examines the association of newly expanded telehealth with short-interval follow-up visits during the COVID-19 pandemic in an academic primary care practice. ⋯ Newly expanded telehealth visits conducted in the year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in higher rates and sooner first occurrence of short-interval follow-up visits. Future research should identify optimal scheduling processes for telehealth visits to minimize short-interval follow-ups.
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This study examined patient portal utilization by analyzing the pattern of time and feature use of patients, and thus to identify functionalities of portal use and patient characteristics that may inform future strategies to enhance communication and care coordination through online portals. ⋯ Efforts to enroll patients in online portals do not guarantee patients will use the portals to manage their health. When considering the use of patient portals for improving telehealth, clinicians need to be aware of technological, socioeconomic, and cultural challenges faced by their patients.