What Patients Like — And Dislike — About Telemedicine

As the Covid pandemic swept across the U.S., providers nationwide switched one third or more of their in-person care to telephone and video encounters. While the volume of telemedicine visits has declined in recent months, it’s clear that the technology is here to stay — though there’s work to be done. 

The wide gap between patients’ ratings of the processes of telemedicine and in-person care did not narrow over the six-month period — indicating that improvement cannot be expected to happen organically. From observing how telemedicine is being used around the country, three recommendations can be made about how to accelerate improvement.