Are there statistics that show COVID-19’s impact on pivoting telehealth care from “nice to have” to a “baseline expectation”?
Though not all Americans have needed to see a healthcare provider during these months of the pandemic, we know that about 60 to 70% of American adults have seen a provider since its start. Of those, about 15% had a telehealth encounter of some kind. That puts telehealth mainstream.
To compare pre-pandemic with current telehealth use, it’s important to recognize that for about a decade prior to the pandemic, our 14 telehealth resource centers that make up the National Consortium of Telehealth Research Centers (funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Office for the Advancement of Telehealth), provided technical assistance to many individuals and organizations. We’d commonly answer questions on the topics ranging from “What is telehealth?” to “How do I do telehealth?” Some surveys suggested that close to 80% to 90% of health centers reported doing telehealth of some type in 2019 — but in reality, we understood that data point to be closer to 40% having a significant or meaningful program.
To read the full article click here: ruralhealthinfo.org/rural-monitor/jonathan-neufeld
