Research into the California-based Kaiser Permanente’ telehealth system reported both high rates of patient satisfaction and positive outcomes. The analysis, conducted on video-based telehealth encounters between 2015-2017, used data from 201,383 scheduled video visits from 152,809 patients. According to the research team, led by Mary E. Reed. In a study published in Health Affairs, researchers found that patients who were satisfied with their care received more follow-up visits, fewer doctor referrals, lower costs for medical services, and better outcomes than those who had been Rather than direct-to-consumer telehealth services, the focus was made to a novel model of integrating telemedicine seamlessly with patients’ ongoing clinicians, EHRs and delivery systems. Over three-quarters of the virtual visits were made for medicine, pediatrics, dermatology, after-hours care or psychiatry, with 70 percent of the primary care visits made with the patient’s own primary care provider. Some issues, however, were the relatively low success rate of 66 percent when initially connecting for the telehealth visit, though this rose on subsequent visits. Furthermore, the number telehealth visits were a fraction of total encounters, involving less than 5 percent of the health system’s total patients, amounting to less than 1 percent of all office visits. The report concludes that telehealth encounters were well received among patients, but the tool remained underused.
Research into the California-based Kaiser Permanente’ telehealth system reported both high rates of patient satisfaction and positive outcomes. The analysis, conducted on video-based telehealth encounters between 2015-2017, used data from 201,383 scheduled video visits from 152,809 patients. In a study published in Health Affairs, researchers found that patients who were satisfied with their care received more follow-up visits, fewer doctor referrals, lower costs for medical services, and better outcomes than those who had been Rather than direct-to-consumer telehealth services, the focus was made to a novel model of integrating telemedicine seamlessly with patients’ ongoing clinicians, EHRs and delivery systems. Over three-quarters of the virtual visits were made for medicine, pediatrics, dermatology, after-hours care or psychiatry, with 70 percent of the primary care visits made with the patient’s own primary care provider. Some issues, however, were the relatively low success rate of 66 percent when initially connecting for the telehealth visit, though this rose on subsequent visits. Furthermore, the number telehealth visits were a fraction of total encounters, involving less than 5 percent of the health system’s total patients, amounting to less than 1 percent of all office visits. The report concludes that telehealth encounters were well received among patients, but the tool remained underused.