What do Patients Want from Telehealth?
Telehealth offers convenience, saves time, and offers other benefits over office visits, but many people don't even know it's available to them, a new survey found.
The top 6 reasons patients prefer telehealth over an office visit.
Telehealth is preferred by three-quarters of respondents for minor urgent care issues.
Telehealth options for preventive, specialty, and chronic care visits are preferred by nearly two-thirds of respondents.
A virtual urgent care visit in the past year was reported by nearly three-quarters of survey respondents with one-third saying the visit was for chronic care.
Telehealth would be the choice for an appointment if there were no office visits available for more than a month when considering membership in a new health system.
About two-thirds of respondents said they are unsure if or how their health system communicates about telehealth options.
If on-demand telehealth visits are available from their health system for minor urgent health issues, half of respondents were unsure of the option.
Health systems could do a better job of proactively notifying members that telehealth visits are available.
When the wait for an office visit was too long or there were other reasons for preferring a virtual appointment, just under half said they were not notified by the health system.
Telehealth clinicians and office-based clinicians should both have access to all an individual's health records, a preference indicated by three-quarters of respondents.
About one-third of respondents said the last virtual health care professional they consulted with either had no access to their records or didn't know if access was available.
Telemedicine became a lifeline in the US for millions during the COVID-19 pandemic and for many people it has become the preferred mode to receive at least some of their health care. A recent consumer survey found that 73% of respondents had a virtual visit for urgent care in the past year, while others had used the at-home option for preventive care, chronic care and behavioral health.
But despite the word's intense exposure to telehealth over the past nearly 5 years, other findings from the survey, published by virtual care company KeyCare, reveal that "many patients are not aware of the full breadth of telehealth offerings provided by their health systems and primary care physicians" Lyle Berkowitz, MD, CEO of KeyCare, said in a statement.
Click through the survey results above to learn more about what US adults know and don't know about telehealth services available to them.