Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep;36(4):577-583.
doi: 10.1111/jrh.12482. Epub 2020 Jun 30.

Telehealth Availability in US Hospitals in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Neeraj A Puro  1 , Scott Feyereisen  1
Affiliations

Telehealth Availability in US Hospitals in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Neeraj A Puro et al. J Rural Health. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Telehealth is likely to play a crucial role in treating COVID-19 patients. However, not all US hospitals possess telehealth capabilities. This brief report was designed to explore US hospitals' readiness with respect to telehealth availability. We hope to gain deeper insight into the factors affecting possession of these valuable capabilities, and how this varies between rural and urban areas.

Methods: Based on 2017 data from the American Hospital Association survey, Area Health Resource Files and Medicare cost reports, we used logistic regression models to identify predictors of telehealth and eICU capabilities in US hospitals.

Results: We found that larger hospitals (OR(telehealth) = 1.013; P < .01) and system members (OR(telehealth) = 1.55; P < .01) (OR(eICU) = 1.65; P < .01) had higher odds of possessing telehealth and eICU capabilities. We also found evidence suggesting that telehealth and eICU capabilities are concentrated in particular regions; the West North Central region was the most likely to possess capabilities, given that these hospitals had higher odds of possessing telehealth (OR = 1.49; P < .10) and eICU capabilities (OR = 2.15; P < .05). Rural hospitals had higher odds of possessing telehealth capabilities as compared to their urban counterparts, although this relationship was marginally significant (OR = 1.34, P < .10).

Conclusions: US hospitals vary in their preparation to use telehealth to aid in the COVID-19 battle, among other issues. Hospitals' odds of possessing the capability to provide such services vary largely by region; overall, rural hospitals have more widespread telehealth capabilities than urban hospitals. There is still great potential to expand these capabilities further, especially in areas that have been hard hit by COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; access to care; demography; technology; telehealth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of Rural Hospitals Equipped with Telehealth Capabilities, by State.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Neville CW. Telehealth: a balanced look at incorporating this technology into practice. SAGE Open Nurs. 2018;4:2377960818786504. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Duarte SS, Nguyen T‐AT, Koch C, Williams K, Murphy JD. Remote obstetric anesthesia: leveraging telemedicine to improve fetal and maternal outcomes. Telemed J E Health. 2019. 10.1089/tmj.2019.0174. Online Ahead of Print:November 11, 2019. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Roth M. President Trump signs $2 trillion stimulus package; telehealth gets another boost. Available at: https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/president-trump-signs-2-tr.... Published March 27, 2020. Accessed June 5, 2020.
    1. Bishop J, Kong D, Schulz TR, Thursky KA, Buising KL. Meeting the challenge for effective antimicrobial stewardship programs in regional, rural and remote hospitals—what can we learn from the published literature? Rural Remote Health. 2018;18(2):4442. - PubMed
    1. Van Oeveren L, Donner J, Fantegrossi A, Mohr NM, Brown CA III. Telemedicine‐assisted intubation in rural emergency departments: A National Emergency Airway Registry Study. Telemed e‐Health. 2017;23(4):290‐297. - PubMed

MeSH terms