COVID-19 transforms health care through telemedicine: Evidence from the field

Devin M Mann, Ji Chen, Rumi Chunara, Paul A Testa, Oded Nov, Devin M Mann, Ji Chen, Rumi Chunara, Paul A Testa, Oded Nov

Abstract

This study provides data on the feasibility and impact of video-enabled telemedicine use among patients and providers and its impact on urgent and nonurgent healthcare delivery from one large health system (NYU Langone Health) at the epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the United States. Between March 2nd and April 14th 2020, telemedicine visits increased from 102.4 daily to 801.6 daily. (683% increase) in urgent care after the system-wide expansion of virtual urgent care staff in response to COVID-19. Of all virtual visits post expansion, 56.2% and 17.6% urgent and nonurgent visits, respectively, were COVID-19-related. Telemedicine usage was highest by patients 20 to 44 years of age, particularly for urgent care. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven rapid expansion of telemedicine use for urgent care and nonurgent care visits beyond baseline periods. This reflects an important change in telemedicine that other institutions facing the COVID-19 pandemic should anticipate.

Keywords: COVID-19; ambulatory care; remote patient monitoring; telemedicine.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Visit volumes increase in telemedicine urgent care (VUC) and nonurgent care (non-VUC) and decrease in in-person care. Each bar represents 1 day. Key dates are annotated above corresponding bars. COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; ED: emergency department.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Telemedicine adoption: daily count of unique patients and providers. Each 2 bars represent 1 day, and each bar is the volume of unique patients and providers using telemedicine each day. Key dates are annotated above corresponding bars. COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; ED: emergency department; MCIT: Medical Center Information Technology.

References

    1. AmericanWell. Telehealth Index: 2019 Consumer Survey. Accessed March 30, 2020.
    1. Dorsey ER, Topol EJ.. State of telehealth. N Engl J Med 2016; 375 (2): 154–61.
    1. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicare telemedicine health care provider fact sheet. Accessed March 30, 2020.
    1. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Notification of enforcement discretion for telehealth remote communications during the COVID-19 nationwide public health emergency. Accessed March 28, 2020.
    1. Hollander JE, Carr BG.. Virtually perfect? Telemedicine for Covid-19. N Engl J Med 2020; 382 (18): 1679–81.
    1. Reeves JJ, Hollandsworth HM, Torriani FJ, et al.. Rapid response to COVID-19: health informatics support for outbreak management in an academic health system. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2020. Mar 24 [E-pub ahead of print].
    1. Mehrotra A, Ray K, Brockmeyer DM, Barnett ML, Bender JA.. Rapidly converting to “virtual practices”: outpatient care in the era of covid-19. N Engl J Med Catalyst 2020; 1 (2).
    1. Duffy S, Lee TH.. In-person health care as option B. N Engl J Med 2018; 378 (2): 104–6.

Source: PubMed

Sponsoren und Mitarbeiter

Krankheiten

Drogeninterventionen

3
Abonnieren