Telehealth during the pandemic: Patient perceptions and policy implications.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Telehealth's potential to improve access to specialty health care, increase favorable patient outcomes, and save money demands attention. Unfortunately, patients often fail to embrace telehealth. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled greater telehealth usage globally. Little is known about patient perceptions of telehealth in the context of a pandemic. Therefore, we sought to understand patient perceptions of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and explore relevant policy implications. DESIGN: Researchers used a cross-sectional, non-experimental design to survey 366 patients across two telehealth programs at a Mississippi academic health sciences center between November 1, 2021 and November 15, 2021. METHODS: As part of a larger, psychometric study on patient acceptance of telehealth, participants rated the item, "The COVID-19 pandemic has made me more open to using telehealth" on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Means of the different groups were analyzed using independent t-test and one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc multiple comparisons. RESULTS: Of the total participants, 73% (n = 366) either agreed or strongly agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic had made them more open to using telehealth. Significant differences existed by age (p = 0.016), race/ethnicity (p = 0.015), and sex (p < 0.001), however, groups did not differ by age during post-hoc analysis. A significant difference in the mean responses was observed between black participants (M = 4.29) and white participants (M = 3.91; p = 0.011). In addition, female participants (M = 4.11) rated the item higher than male participants (M = 3.65). CONCLUSION: As access to telehealth increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, patients' perceptions to telehealth seem to have shifted in the positive direction as well. Findings may be used to support expansion of telehealth and advocacy for patients in a variety of settings. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Study findings indicate that participants of telehealth are more open to using telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Implementing telehealth should be a priority to increase access to care for those who have limited access to specialty care, and policymakers should advocate to decrease barriers to telehealth within their institutions.