A patient education intervention improved rates of successful video visits during rapid implementation of telehealth.
J Telemed Telecare
; 29(8): 607-612, 2023 Sep.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33975506
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
The need to rapidly implement telehealth at large scale during the COVID-19 pandemic led to many patients using telehealth for the first time. We assessed the effect of structured pre-visit preparatory telephone calls on success of telehealth visits and examined risk factors for unsuccessful visits.METHODS:
A retrospective cohort study was carried out of 45,803 adult patients scheduled for a total of 64,447 telehealth appointments between March and July 2020 at an academic medical center. A subset of patients received a structured pre-visit phone call. Demographic factors and inclusion of a pre-visit call were analysed by logistic regression. Primary outcomes were non-completion of any visit and completion of phone-only versus audio-visual telehealth visits.RESULTS:
A pre-visit telephone call to a subset of patients significantly increased the likelihood of a successful telehealth visit (OR 0.54; 95% CI 0.48-0.60). Patients aged 18-30 years, those with non-commercial insurance or those of Black race were more likely to have incomplete visits. Compared to age 18-30, increasing age increased likelihood of a failed video visit 31-50 years (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.13-1.51), 51-70 years (OR 2.98; 2.60-3.42) and >70 years (OR 4.16; 3.58-4.82). Those with non-commercial insurance and those of Black race (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.67-1.92) were more likely to have a failed video visit.DISCUSSION:
A structured pre-call to patients improved the likelihood of a successful video visit during widespread adoption of telehealth. Structured pre-calls to patients may be an important tool to help reduce gaps in utilization among groups.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Office Visits
/
Patient Education as Topic
/
Telemedicine
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Qualitative_research
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
J Telemed Telecare
Journal subject:
INFORMATICA MEDICA
/
SERVICOS DE SAUDE
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States