Approximately nine in 10 family physicians report they would use telemedicine to treat patients if they were paid to do so. However, only 15 percent report having used the technology in the past year, according to a new survey.
"Overall, the findings of this survey confirm that family physicians see promise in the ability of telehealth to improve access to primary care services," the authors wrote. "The findings also suggest that telehealth is on the cusp of advancing from a tool used occasionally to a tool implemented on a routine basis. However, use of telehealth services will not become widely adopted until health systems are reformed to address barriers."
In order to overcome these obstacles, practice training and support need to be reformed to include telehealth education, the authors concluded. This includes updating technological platforms with tools that would support telehealth, expanding reimbursements for telemedicine services and clarifying licensing and credentialing for interstate provision of telehealth services.
Here are 15 findings from the survey report, which was answered by 1,557 respondents and conducted by the Robert Graham Center.
- Physicians who report using telehealth were more likely to be younger and to report being in practice for less than 10 years. They were also more likely to report current use of an EHR.
- Compared with non-users, a greater percentage of respondents who use telehealth provide obstetric, emergency department and major procedural care. A greater percentage of non-users care for children.
- Telehealth users were more likely to practice in settings with varying types of clinicians.
- Although 5 percent of physicians in privately owned practice used telehealth in the past year, 26 percent of physicians in integrated health systems used telehealth.
- Almost 25 percent of respondents who had a federal designation for their practice were telehealth users.
- Approximately 20 percent of respondents affiliated with HMOs were telehealth users.
- Both users and non-users agreed they would use telehealth to connect patients to specialists.
- Of telehealth users, 88.9 percent believed the technology improves access to patient. Of non-users, 76.8 percent agreed with this.
- Non-users were more likely to consider telehealth an inefficient use of their time.
- Compared to non-users, a higher percentage of telehealth users agreed telehealth reduces travel time for patients.
- The percentage of non-users who believed patients prefer to see a physician in person was 93.8 percent compared to 82.7 of users.
- More than one-quarter of telehealth user reported using telehealth only one to two times in the past 12 months.
- Of the respondents who used telehealth in their practice reported using it more than 20 times in the past 12 months.
- Nearly 50 percent of telehealth users reported using real-time video, and 55 percent reported using the technology to diagnose or treat patients.
- The top types of clinicians referred via telehealth were specialists, at 68.1 percent, and mental health providers, at 28 percent.