Patient Characteristics Associated With Telemedicine Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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COVID-19

In this cohort study of patients scheduled for primary care and medical specialty ambulatory telemedicine visits at a large academic health system during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, older patients, Asian patients, and non–English-speaking patients had lower rates of telemedicine use, while older patients, female patients, Black, Latinx, and poorer patients had less video use.

Inequities in accessing telemedicine care are present, which warrant further attention.

A total of 148,402 unique patients (86 055 women [58.0%]; mean [SD] age, 56.5 [17.7] years) had scheduled telemedicine visits during the study period; 80,780 patients (54.4%) completed visits. Of 78,539 patients with completed visits in which visit modality was specified, 35,824 (45.6%) were conducted via video, whereas 24,025 (56.9%) had a telephone visit.

A retrospective medical record review was conducted from March 16 to May 11, 2020, of all patients scheduled for telemedicine visits in primary care and specialty ambulatory clinics at a large academic health system.

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