Patient Characteristics Associated With Phone and Video Visits at a Tele-Urgent Care Center During the Initial COVID-19 Response: Cross-Sectional Study

Saif Khairat; Roshan John; Malvika Pillai; Philip McDaniel; Barbara Edson

doi:10.2196/50962

Patient Characteristics Associated With Phone and Video Visits at a Tele-Urgent Care Center During the Initial COVID-19 Response: Cross-Sectional Study

Online J Public Health Inform. 2024 Jan 19:16:e50962. doi: 10.2196/50962.

Authors

Saif Khairat^{1

2

3}, Roshan John¹, Malvika Pillai¹, Philip McDaniel⁴, Barbara Edson⁵

Affiliations

¹ Carolina Health Informatics Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
² Cecil G Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
³ School of Nursing, University North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
⁴ Digital Research Services Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
⁵ UNC Health, Morrisville, NC, United States.

PMID: 38241073
PMCID: PMC10802832
DOI: 10.2196/50962

Abstract

Background: Health systems rapidly adopted telemedicine as an alternative health care 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: This study aimed to investigate patients' characteristics, patient utilization, and service characteristics of a tele-urgent care clinic during the initial response to 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. The study data were collected from March 3, 2020, through May 3, 2020.

Results: Of 1803 telemedicine visits, 1278 (70.9%) patients were women, 730 (40.5%) were aged 18 to 34 years, and 1423 (78.9%) were uninsured. There were significant differences between telemedicine modalities and gender (P<.001), age (P<.001), insurance status (P<.001), prescriptions given (P<.001), and wait times (P<.001). Phone visits provided significantly more access to rural areas than video visits (P<.001).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that offering patients a combination of phone and video options 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 investigation.

Keywords: COVID-19; cross-sectional study; health disparities; health services research; insurance status; nonemergency care; phone visit; tele-urgent care; telehealth; telemedicine; televisit; urgent care; video visit; virtual urgent care.

©Saif Khairat, Roshan John, Malvika Pillai, Philip McDaniel, Barbara Edson. Originally published in the Online Journal of Public Health Informatics (https://ojphi.jmir.org/), 19.01.2024.

Abstract

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