Age and Medicare Insurance are Barriers to Telemedicine Access-A Quality Improvement Project.
Am Surg
; 89(5): 1643-1649, 2023 May.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35062844
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Telehealth use has had widespread expansion and adoption over the past two years. This study aims to evaluate access to telehealth essentials (TE) using a novel metric.METHODS:
This single institute study surveyed outpatient surgical patients to determine their access to TE. Generalized linear mixed models were used to determine the relationship of demographic and county-level variables on access to four TE.RESULTS:
138 patients were surveyed. Sixty-six (47.8%) were from Appalachian Kentucky. In the survey cohort, 122 (88.4%) had smart phones, 109 (80.7%) had devices with video messaging capabilities, 106 (80.9%) had cellular reception, and 112 (82.4%) had access to WiFi. Increasing age and Medicare insurance were the most consistent predictors of lack of access to TE.CONCLUSION:
Rural Appalachian Kentucky has access to TE. Telehealth has the potential to decrease the healthcare inequity in rural populations, but incompletely address this inequity for the aging population.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Medicare
/
Telemedicina
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Aged
/
Humans
País como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article