Telehealth will endure, but providers are managing expectations

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Telehealth technology has been cited for its convenience, especially when usage skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are also frustrations, according to recently released UnitedHealth Group research.

The survey of 240 healthcare providers showed a majority (69%) consider telehealth to be convenient, but another 28% described virtual care as frustrating.

While those might seem like contradictory descriptors, providers shed some clarity on their thinking, with 58% saying they were frustrated with the quality of care they can provide through virtual platforms, and 55% saying they have to manage patient expectations for virtual visits. Half the respondents were vexed with the technical details that come with navigating telehealth.

One thing the pandemic has done, however, is uncover opportunities to improve the patient experience and the scale of virtual-care offerings, with many providers focused on optimizing their technology platforms.

Most healthcare organizations adopted virtual care as recently as the start of the pandemic, so the required technical knowledge still presents a high barrier to entry for patients and even some providers. The top two priorities for providers in improving telehealth call for bridging the digital divide: Providers saw the No. 1 priority as offering telehealth training to patients who are less digitally savvy. Ongoing telehealth training for clinicians and their staff ranked second.

"The innovations utilized over the past two years and the convenience they have brought to providers and patients should not be left behind," Puneet Maheshwari, cofounder and CEO of DocASAP at Optum, said in a statement. "As we slowly come out of the pandemic, returning to operating the way we were pre-pandemic should not be the norm. Telehealth has proven to be a valuable and convenient asset for patients accessing care, so providers and technology vendors need to continue improving on the technology itself as well as the virtual-care processes."

DocASAP, part of Optum, is a patient access and engagement platform for health systems, health plans and physician groups.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

Despite some of the concerns, telehealth shows signs of enduring well beyond the pandemic. A full 93% of respondents said they would continue to use telehealth when the public-health emergency has ended.

One of the main uses for the technology will be in the realm of mental health, with 36% of providers saying they had already used telehealth to help patients address mental-health concerns. This is especially critical in light of a recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis showing widespread shortages of mental-health clinicians, to the tune of about 6,500.

When providers were asked what types of patient care they deliver via telehealth, the top answers were primary care (75%), chronic care (72%), prescription refills (64%), COVID-19 screenings (39%) and urgent care (38%).

Among various telehealth tools, real-time communication channels were the most used: video visits at 88%, and phone visits at 80%. Asynchronous channels lagged, with secure messaging at 30%, email at 12% and text messaging at 7%. Chatbots drew 3%.

When looking at how patients prefer to schedule virtual visits, providers still see a strong preference for traditional scheduling via phone calls (86%), followed by online (51%) and in person (26%).

THE LARGER TREND

Telehealth still enjoys widespread popularity among patients, even though its appeal has dimmed somewhat. A December 2021 Rock Health survey found that in 2020, 53% of respondents were more satisfied with live video virtual care than in-person interactions. This satisfaction decreased somewhat in 2021, however, with just 43% of respondents reporting the same.

Rock Health hypothesized that as the pandemic evolved, consumers began to view telehealth as an alternative to in-person care rather than a necessary replacement. Some of the satisfaction patients felt toward the beginning of the pandemic may have been rooted in gratitude at having any care options at all.

Another possible explanation for the decline among patients is changing usage. In 2020, 33% of telehealth users primarily employed the technology for medical emergencies. Fast forward to 2021, and 32% of users harnessed telehealth for minor illnesses, 20% for medical emergencies and 18% for chronic conditions. This, perhaps, is a better reflection of the technology's current strengths as a care model well-suited for low-acuity issues.

Some providers, such as Avera Health in South Dakota, have used telehealth technology to implement a remote patient-monitoring program that allows for care inside the home. Dr. Andy Burchett, Avera's chief medical information officer and chair of family medicine, spoke in depth about the program at the HIMSS22 annual conference in Orlando, Florida, last week.

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com