Patients who have real-time video visits with their primary care providers instead of in-person exams are generally satisfied with the convenience and quality of their checkups, a new study suggests.
According to an April 29 Reuters news report, “There’s a lot about these telemedicine visits that can sound appealing: no need to get stuck in traffic on the way to the doctor; no long stretches in the waiting room before the exam; no missing half a day of work for an appointment that’s over in the blink of an eye. But research to date hasn’t offered a clear picture of how the reality of virtual visits matches up with patients’ expectations.”
Reuters reporter Lisa Rapaport quoted Dr. Mary Reed of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, who was the lead study author, as stating that, “Prior to the current study there was very little research evidence about primary-care video visits, especially when the visits are with a patient’s own primary care providers (the ones they also visit in-person) as a part of their ongoing clinical care.” Reed and her colleagues surveyed 1,274 patients at Kaiser in Northern California who had a scheduled video visit with a primary care provider in autumn 2015 to see how well the technology and the medical care worked for them.
Importantly, 93 percent of the Kaiser Northern California patients surveyed said that they felt that their video checkups had meet their needs; 92 percent felt their provider was familiar with their medical history; and 90 percent were confident in the quality of their care. Patients cited many reasons for participating in video visits, including convenience, being able to see their regular primary care providers, and the perception that an in-person visit was not needed, when they participated in the most recent video visit.
