News: Telehealth provides effective alternative during pandemic, physicians say

More than 75% of clinicians who took part in a national survey as part of the Telehealth Impact Study have said that telehealth options have allowed them to provide quality care for a variety of specialties ranging from COVID-19-related care to behavioral health, HealthLeaders Media reported.

Study authors said that the results reinforce the knowledge that telehealth is critical to healthcare delivery today, and that it’s continued use will be instrumental in connecting patients in the future.

Among the survey findings:

• 60% said telehealth has improved the health of their patients.
• 68% said they’re motivated to increase telehealth use in their practices.
• 11% said they were using remote patient monitoring technologies with patients in their homes, including smartphones, blood pressure cuffs, body weight scales, and pulse oximeters.
• 55% said that telehealth has improved the satisfaction of their work.
• More than 80% said telehealth improved the timeliness of care for their patients. A similar percentage said their patients have reacted favorably to telehealth.

Despite the solid reviews for telehealth, the survey also identified ongoing barriers to adoption. Specifically:

• More than 64% said technology challenges for patients were a barrier and included lack of access to technology and/or internet/broadband, and low digital literacy.
• 58% of physicians can't access their telehealth technology directly from their electronic health records.
• 73.3% said no or low reimbursement will be a major challenge post-COVID.  

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in HealthLeaders Media. The survey analysis can be found here. To read more about CDI’s role with telehealth, click here. To read all of ACDIS’ coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.