JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Health systems rapidly adopted telemedicine as an alternative healthcare delivery modality in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Demographic factors, such as age and gender, may play a role in patients’ choice of a phone or video visit. However, it is unknown whether there are differences in utilization between phone and video visits.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to investigate the patient characteristics, utilization, and service characteristics of patients using a tele-urgent care clinic during the initial response of the pandemic.

Methods:

We conducted a cross-sectional study of urgent care patients using a statewide, on-demand telemedicine clinic with board-certified physicians during the initial phases of the pandemic. Study data was collected from March 3, 2020 through May 3, 2020.

Results:

Of 1803 telemedicine visits, 1278(70.9%) were female, 730(40.5%) were of ages 18-34, and 1423(78.9%) were uninsured. There were significant differences between telemedicine modalities and gender (p<0.05), age (p<0.05), insurance status (p<0.05), prescription given (p<0.05), and wait times (p<0.05). Phone visits provided significantly more access to rural areas than video visits (p<0.01).

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that offering a combination of phone and video options to patients provided additional flexibility for various patient subgroups, particularly patients living in rural regions with limited internet bandwidth. Differences in utilization were significant based on patient gender, age, and insurance status. We also found differences in prescription administration between phone and video visits that require additional investigations.