Transition to telemedicine and its impact on missed appointments in community-based clinics

Autor: Omolola E. Adepoju, Minji Chae, Winston Liaw, Tracy Angelocci, Paul Millard, Omar Matuk-Villazon
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Annals of Medicine, Vol 54, Iss 1, Pp 98-107 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0785-3890
1365-2060
07853890
DOI: 10.1080/07853890.2021.2019826
Popis: Background and objective The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act led to the rapid implementation of telemedicine across health care office settings. Whether this transition to telemedicine has any impact on missed appointments is yet to be determined. This study examined the relationship between telemedicine usage and missed appointments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method This retrospective study used appointment-level data from 55 Federally Qualified Health Centre clinics in Texas between March and November 2020. To account for the nested data structure of repeated appointments within each patient, a mixed-effects multivariable logistic regression model was used to examine associations between telemedicine use and missed appointments, adjusting for patient sociodemographic characteristics, geographic classification, past medical history, and clinic characteristics. The independent variable was having a telemedicine appointment, defined as an audiovisual consultation started and finalized via a telemedicine platform. The outcome of interest was having a missed appointment (yes/no) after a scheduled and confirmed medical appointment. Results from this initial model were stratified by appointment type (in-person vs. telemedicine). Results The analytic sample included 278,171 appointments for 85,413 unique patients. The overall missed appointment rate was 18%, and 25% of all appointments were telemedicine appointments. Compared to in-person visits, telemedicine visits were less likely to result in a missed appointment (OR = 0.87, p
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