Increased Attendance During Rapid Implementation of Telehealth for Substance Use Disorders During COVID-19 at the Largest Public Hospital System in the United States.
Subst Use Misuse
; 57(8): 1322-1327, 2022.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1864846
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this study is to examine differences between; telehealth and in-person visits during COVID-19 and in a pre-COVID-19 reference period; COVID-19 televisit completion for patients with varying engagement in treatment during the reference period.METHODS:
Electronic medical record data were collected and analyzed with chi-squared or t-tests to compare patient demographics. Generalized estimating equations for estimating the odds of outcomes were used, controlling for demographics.RESULTS:
Patients were 3.34 and 1.74 times more likely to complete a telehealth visit (n = 11,839) compared with an in-person visit during (n = 7,917) and prior (n = 15,497) to COVID-19. For patients on buprenorphine, patients with no prior in-person visits during the pre-televisit period were 2.26 more likely to complete televisits compared with patients with two or more prior in-person visits. For all patients, those with two or more prior in-person visits in the reference period were 1.27 times more likely to complete a televisit compared with a patient with no in-person visits during the pre-televisit period. There was no significant difference when comparing with patients who had only one prior in-person visit to those patients with no prior visits.CONCLUSIONS:
In this study, outpatient substance use disorder (SUD) telehealth appointments were associated with higher odds of visit completion compared with in-person visits during and prior to COVID-19. Patients receiving buprenorphine, without prior in person visits, were more likely to attend if they did not have in-person visits prior to COVID-19. Regulators should consider permanently adopting telehealth flexibilities for SUD treatment once the federal emergency status has ended.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Buprenorphine
/
Telemedicine
/
Substance-Related Disorders
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Subst Use Misuse
Journal subject:
Substance-Related Disorders
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
10826084.2022.2079140
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