Telehealth Raises Visit Completion Rate by 20% for Rural Residents

Using data from a rural Appalachian population, a study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that telemedicine is an effective alternative to in-person care for rural residents, helping to drive up appointment completion rates.

In the study, researchers examined a sample of 110,999 patient visits, 13,013 of which occurred through telemedicine. All data came from the West Virginia University Department of Family Medicine from January 2019 to November 2020. Researchers excluded data belonging to patients who lived more than 60 miles outside the West Virginia state line.

Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study, using the data to determine any correlation between the rate of visit completion and the setting in which a visit occurred.

They found that telehealth can drive appointment completion rates up by about 20 percent.

They also found that certain individuals were less likely to use telehealth, including new patients and older adults.

Further, the research team discovered that, in general, at-risk individuals are less likely to complete visits. But telemedicine was conducive to appointment participation among this population.

Researchers concluded that the increased use of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic boosted appointment completion among rural residents. This was especially true for difficult-to-reach patients, especially those who lived further away from the clinical location and those with more severe health issues, according to the study.

But researchers also pointed out various limitations to their study. These include using data from one entity, disregarding subjective barriers to care access, lack of information about different patient demographics, and omitting completion data beyond the check-in phase.

In addition, more information from other clinics is required to validate their conclusion, but overall, researchers believe telemedicine can be effectively used to provide care for rural patients.

Over the past year, several efforts have been made by federal officials and lawmakers to increase telehealth access for rural populations.

For example, in January 2021, federal officials dedicated $8 million to a project that increased broadband connectivity for rural telehealth in Alaska, Michigan, Texas, and West Virginia. The organizations receiving the grant, the National Telehealth Technology Assessment Resource Center and the Telehealth-Focused Rural Health Research Center at the University of Arkansas, said they planned to create a three-year pilot program to enhance the virtual care resources provided to the rural areas in these states.

In October 2021, lawmakers requested Congress compose a rural telehealth access task force. Introduced by US reps Greg Pence (R-IN) and Angie Craig (D-MN), the Rural Telehealth Access Task Force Act would launch a federal study on rural telehealth use and strategies for improvement.