Telemedicine Utilization in the COVID-19 Era : Patterns of Care in Community Urology Practice
INTRODUCTION: The acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted ambulatory care in the US, and in response telemedicine was adopted rapidly but unevenly across specialties and time. This study examines the utilization of telemedicine in the specialty of urology across a 3-year period (before, during, and after the onset of the pandemic) with the objective of describing patterns, costs, and trends in telemedicine utilization in the specialty.
METHODS: The study data were drawn from the adjudicated claims of 1726 providers in 41 independent (privately owned) practices across the US from March 2019 to February 2022. Encounters were indexed to providers to allow for comparisons of utilization across time. Telehealth adoption was defined as the percentage of encounters eligible for reimbursement by telehealth actually conducted by telehealth.
RESULTS: A total of 3,630,474 individual patients and 16,130,444 unique encounters were included in our analysis. Telehealth-eligible (evaluation and management) encounters declined sharply from a prepandemic baseline of 262 per provider per month (pppm) to a nadir of 164 pppm in April 2020 (acute phase), but quickly rebounded to 264 pppm by June 2020 (postacute phase). Telehealth adoption among urology providers in this study was 0% prior to March 2020, peaked at 46% in April 2020, and then declined rapidly in the months afterward.
CONCLUSIONS: Telehealth adoption in urology spiked abruptly during the acute phase of the pandemic before declining to a low but stable level above prepandemic baseline. These findings may have implications for the broader role of telemedicine in the delivery of urologic care.
| Errataetall: |
CommentIn: Urol Pract. 2024 Feb 28;:101097UPJ0000000000000526. - PMID 38447523 |
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| Medienart: |
E-Artikel |
| Erscheinungsjahr: |
2024 |
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| Erschienen: |
2024 |
| Enthalten in: |
Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:11 |
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| Enthalten in: |
Urology practice - 11(2024), 3 vom: 19. Apr., Seite 474-485 |
| Sprache: |
Englisch |
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| Beteiligte Personen: |
Dowling, Robert A [VerfasserIn] |
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| Links: |
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| Themen: |
Ambulatory care |
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| Anmerkungen: |
Date Completed 22.04.2024 Date Revised 22.04.2024 published: Print-Electronic CommentIn: Urol Pract. 2024 Feb 28;:101097UPJ0000000000000526. - PMID 38447523 Citation Status MEDLINE |
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| doi: |
10.1097/UPJ.0000000000000523 |
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| Förderinstitution / Projekttitel: |
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| 500 | |a Citation Status MEDLINE | ||
| 520 | |a INTRODUCTION: The acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted ambulatory care in the US, and in response telemedicine was adopted rapidly but unevenly across specialties and time. This study examines the utilization of telemedicine in the specialty of urology across a 3-year period (before, during, and after the onset of the pandemic) with the objective of describing patterns, costs, and trends in telemedicine utilization in the specialty | ||
| 520 | |a METHODS: The study data were drawn from the adjudicated claims of 1726 providers in 41 independent (privately owned) practices across the US from March 2019 to February 2022. Encounters were indexed to providers to allow for comparisons of utilization across time. Telehealth adoption was defined as the percentage of encounters eligible for reimbursement by telehealth actually conducted by telehealth | ||
| 520 | |a RESULTS: A total of 3,630,474 individual patients and 16,130,444 unique encounters were included in our analysis. Telehealth-eligible (evaluation and management) encounters declined sharply from a prepandemic baseline of 262 per provider per month (pppm) to a nadir of 164 pppm in April 2020 (acute phase), but quickly rebounded to 264 pppm by June 2020 (postacute phase). Telehealth adoption among urology providers in this study was 0% prior to March 2020, peaked at 46% in April 2020, and then declined rapidly in the months afterward | ||
| 520 | |a CONCLUSIONS: Telehealth adoption in urology spiked abruptly during the acute phase of the pandemic before declining to a low but stable level above prepandemic baseline. These findings may have implications for the broader role of telemedicine in the delivery of urologic care | ||
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| 700 | 1 | |a Albala, David M |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
| 700 | 1 | |a Bart, Alex |e verfasserin |4 aut | |
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