Primary care practices varied in ability to adapt to telemedicine when pandemic began

When demand for telemedicine visits surged with the arrival of COVID-19, why were some primary care practices better able to meet the demand than others? A new study in Annals of Internal Medicine identifies four broad reasons behind the difference. The study’s authors surveyed 25 practice leaders, representing 87 primary care practices in Florida and New York. After analyzing the responses, the researchers identified four overarching themes. First was that the ease with which a practice adopted telemedicine depended greatly on its prior experience with virtual health. A second theme was the impact of regulatory differences for telehealth among states, especially in areas such as prescribing controlled substances via telemedicine visits and licensing issues. The third theme was unclear triaging rules--which patients could be treated virtually and which required an in-person visit. The final theme to emerge was the dichotomy between what respondents saw as telehealth’s benefits for patients versus its drawbacks for providers.Many saw telemedicine as particularly well-suited for certain visit types, such as mental health and diabetes management.