Telehealth Only Partially Offset Decreased Primary Care Visits During Pandemic
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, July 23, 2024 -- Decreases in primary care visit volume were partially offset by increasing telehealth use for all patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published in the July/August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
Zachary J. Morgan, from the American Board of Family Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky, and colleagues quantified the nationwide decrease in primary care visits and increase in telehealth utilization during the pandemic and explored whether certain groups of patients were disproportionately affected. Analysis included 1.65 million patients (8.83 million visits) seen at 408 practices.
The researchers found that during the pandemic, there were decreases of 7 percent in total volume and 17 percent for in-person visit volume, yielding a 10 percent telehealth conversion ratio. The greatest decreases in visit volume were seen among pediatric patients (−24 percent), Asian patients (−11 percent), and those with more comorbidities (−9 percent). Hispanic or Latino patients (17 percent) and patients living in urban areas (12 percent) had highest telehealth usage.
"These variations [in telehealth utilization] have implications not only for the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also for planners seeking to ready the primary care delivery system for any future systematic disruptions and to mitigate any potential exacerbation of existing disparities," the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted July 2024
Further Support and Information on COVID-19
Read this next
School-Based Asthma Therapy Boosts Asthma Control, Cuts Acute Health Care Use
THURSDAY, April 24, 2025 -- School-based asthma therapy (SBAT) can help improve children’s asthma control and decrease acute health care utilization, according to a study...
Prevalence of Most Cancer Risk Factors Unchanged Before, After Pandemic
THURSDAY, April 24, 2025 -- Smoking rates continued to decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, but other major risk factors for cancer remained stable, according to a study...
Brensocatib Leads to Lower Rate of Pulmonary Exacerbations in Bronchiectasis
THURSDAY, April 24, 2025 -- For patients with bronchiectasis, brensocatib leads to a lower annualized rate of pulmonary exacerbations, according to a study published in the April...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.