Presentation
Socio-technical Factors for Telehealth Success
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeTuesday, March 22nd3:30pm - 4:30pm CDT
LocationGrand Salon B
DescriptionTelehealth has been rapidly and widely adopted by healthcare facilities, largely due to COVID-19. Patient use of telehealth has been variable with initial high rates of use primarily because of the pandemic, but reductions over time with some preferences for in-person care by certain populations. Using a socio-technical systems approach, we examined factors impacting telehealth implementation and use in primary care across several different healthcare facilities. An analysis of patient encounter data shows certain patient populations would use audio only telehealth modalities, while others preferred in-person care. Through interviews with primary care physicians, we identified several socio-technical system factors that may be accounting for the variability in telehealth use. The factors include:
• Physical environment factors such as patients not having a private space to conduct their telehealth appointments and clinics not being designed to support clinician use of telehealth.
• Hardware/Software factors such as usability challenges with telehealth platforms for both patients and clinicians, as well as patient not having appropriate devices to effectively use telehealth.
• Infrastructure factors such as no or inadequate broadband access for patients and clinicians.
• Policy factors such as payment reimbursement and licensure issues.
• People factors such as understanding how telehealth appointments work, when to be on the telehealth platform, and what to do after an appointment.
• Workflow/Process factors such as lack of integration between the electronic health record and the telehealth platform, and the inability for patients to use telehealth without first being registered for a patient portal account.
• Physical environment factors such as patients not having a private space to conduct their telehealth appointments and clinics not being designed to support clinician use of telehealth.
• Hardware/Software factors such as usability challenges with telehealth platforms for both patients and clinicians, as well as patient not having appropriate devices to effectively use telehealth.
• Infrastructure factors such as no or inadequate broadband access for patients and clinicians.
• Policy factors such as payment reimbursement and licensure issues.
• People factors such as understanding how telehealth appointments work, when to be on the telehealth platform, and what to do after an appointment.
• Workflow/Process factors such as lack of integration between the electronic health record and the telehealth platform, and the inability for patients to use telehealth without first being registered for a patient portal account.