Beyond convenience: Video visits can increase the efficiency of preventive care delivery

ABSTRACT

Introduction: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, medical practices have expanded utilization of telehealth. Little is known about the operational impacts of transitioning from in-person to video visits in specialty clinics. In 2018, the Stanford South Asian Translational Heart Initiative (SSATHI), a preventive cardiology clinic focused on high-risk South Asian adults, introduced CardioClick, a program replacing in-person follow-up visits with video visits. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that implementation of video visits increased the efficiency of clinic operations. Methods: We extracted visit-level data from the EHR for 134 patients enrolled in CardioClick with video follow-up visits from June 14, 2018 to April 21, 2020 and a cohort of 276 patients enrolled in the in-person SSATHI prevention program with follow-up visits from September 11, 2014 to March 6, 2020. Results: Patients in CardioClick and the in-person cohort were similar in terms of age (mean 45 years), gender balance (23 vs 21% female), and cardiometabolic risk profiles. There were 181 video and 637 in-person follow-up visits. Video visits were shorter than in-person visits, both in terms of total clinic time [median 22 min (IQR 16, 29) vs 67 min (48, 100)] and provider time required [median22 min (IQR 16, 29) vs 30 min (12, 58)]. Video visits were more likely to end on time (71 vs 11%,p<0.001). The median video visit ended on time while the median in-person visit ended 32 min late(13, 70) (see Figure). Providers were also more likely to complete video visit documentation thesame day (56 vs 42%, p=0.001). Conclusions: In a preventive cardiology clinic, video follow-up visits required less clinic and provider time than in-person visits, were more likely to end on time, and were associated with increased same-day provider documentation completion. In conclusion, video visits offer benefitsbeyond their convenience and may increase the operational efficiency of specialty care practicesfocused on disease prevention, improving value in care delivery.