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. 2023 Nov 1;61(11):772-778.
doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001916. Epub 2023 Sep 19.

Patient-reported Primary Care Video and Telephone Telemedicine Preference Shifts During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Andrea Millman  1 , Jie Huang  1 , Ilana Graetz  2 , Catherine Lee  1 , Judy Shan  3 , Loretta Hsueh  4 , Emilie Muelly  5 , Anjali Gopalan  1 , Mary Reed  1
Affiliations

Patient-reported Primary Care Video and Telephone Telemedicine Preference Shifts During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Andrea Millman et al. Med Care. .

Abstract

Background: Patient perceptions of primary care telephone and video telemedicine and whether COVID-19 pandemic-related telemedicine exposure shifted patients' visit preference is unknown.

Objectives: We examined patient surveys to understand the health care experience of patients seeking primary care through telemedicine and how patients expected their preferences to shift as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research design/subjects: In an integrated delivery system that shifted to a "telemedicine-first" health care model during the COVID-19 pandemic, we sampled monthly and collected 1000 surveys from adults with primary care telemedicine visits scheduled through the online patient portal between 3/16/2020 and 10/31/2020.

Measures: Participants reported their preferred primary care visit modality (telephone, video, or in-person visits) across 3 time points: before, during and (hypothetically) after the COVID-19 pandemic, and reported their general assessment of primary care visits during the pandemic.

Results: The majority of participants preferred in-person visits before (69%) and after the COVID-19 pandemic (57%). However, most participants reported a preference for telemedicine visits during the pandemic and continue to prefer telemedicine visits at a 12% higher rate post-pandemic. Many participants (63%) expressed interest in using telemedicine at least some of the time. Among participants reporting a recent telemedicine visit, 85% agreed that the visit addressed their health needs.

Conclusion: As primary care visit modality preferences continue to evolve, patients anticipate that they will continue to prefer telemedicine visits, both video and telephone, at an increased rate than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Participant-reported pandemic related visit modality preference shifts
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Among participants initially preferring in-person visits: Post-pandemic shifts in visit modality preference by patient characteristics * Shifts in visit modality preference was significantly associated with household income.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Patient-reported experience of recent telemedicine visit
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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