Nearly half of Americans want to use telehealth after the pandemic era, and more than a third of Americans would prefer telehealth to an in-person visit, according to a May 27 survey by the American Psychiatric Association.
The American Psychiatric Association surveyed 1,000 adults from March 26 to April 5 on their opinions surrounding telehealth use.
Four survey findings:
- Nearly half (43 percent) of respondents said they want to continue to use telehealth services after the pandemic, and 34percent said they would prefer telehealth to an in-person office visit.
- In 2020, 40 percent of respondents said telehealth offers the same quality as in-person office visits. That number has slightly risen to 45 percent in 2021.
- Sixty-nine percent of respondents said their telehealth visits were conducted through an online video session app, followed by 38 percent who said their virtual visits were through a regular telephone call and 13 percent said they used audio only.
- Most (82 percent) of respondents first used telehealth services at the start of the pandemic, followed by 14 percent of respondents who said they used it before the pandemic.