News | Teleradiology | April 22, 2020

Survey Reveals Most Medical Practices are Now Using Telehealth Due to COVID-19

While most medical practices are using telehealth during the pandemic, visit volumes remain low and many practices are closed

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April 22, 2020 — As medical practices are struggling with how to continue to serve their patients during the global COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey released today by the Sevocity division of Conceptual MindWorks, Inc. reveals that telemedicine use by practices has increased dramatically, but patient volumes remain low.

The nationwide survey, conducted by Sevocity in April 2020, consisted of an online survey of nearly 2,700 medical practices. Two Hundred and Seventy (270) complete responses were received from 27 different states and representing nearly all specialties.

Sevocity conducted the survey to determine the impact of the COVID-19 on office closures, patient volumes, and the use of telemedicine. Highlights from the Sevocity survey include:

Nearly 23% of practices reported being currently closed due to the pandemic.
85% of respondents reported conducting some telehealth visits compared with only 6% prior to the pandemic.
The number of telehealth visits per day per provider varies considerably by specialty.
Significant barriers to telehealth exist with practices ranking patient access to video technology as the #1 barrier.

"Practices have been valiant, to move to offer telehealth visits quickly," said Catherine Huddle, Sevocity chief marketing officer. "That said, findings indicate not all visits lend themselves to telehealth, and patients need to be equipped to be able to participate in telehealth effectively, so more work needs to be done," added Huddle.

Huddle said Sevocity, through its electronic health record (EHR) product, is committed to assisting clients with telehealth workflow and documentation. "We have been talking with our practices to learn how we can help and responded quickly with product features and support. Our agility has enabled us to create specialized documentation content for telehealth and continue to adjust this based on feedback from our customers, optimizing this modality."

For more information: www.sevocity.com