The impact of expanded telehealth availability on primary care utilization.
Citation: Npj Digital Medicine. 5(1):141, 2022 Sep 09.PMID: 36085158Institution: MedStar Institute for InnovationDepartment: MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center | National Center for Human Factors in HealthcareForm of publication: Journal ArticleMedline article type(s): Journal ArticleSubject headings: IN PROCESS -- NOT YET INDEXEDYear: 2022ISSN:- 2398-6352
- Ratwani, Raj M:
- http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8623-6123
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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Journal Article | MedStar Authors Catalog | Article | 36085158 | Available | 36085158 |
The expanded availability of telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic presents a concern that telehealth may result in an unnecessary increase in utilization. We analyzed 4,114,651 primary care encounters (939,134 unique patients) from three healthcare systems between 2019 and 2021 and found little change in utilization as telehealth became widely available. Results suggest telehealth availability is not resulting in additional primary care visits and federal policies should support telehealth use. Copyright © 2022. The Author(s).
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