New study highlights how telemedicine improves follow-up rates after discharge from hospital

It’s natural to assume that telemedicine reduces the barriers to care experienced by many people. However, it’s vital that we continuously test these assumptions. That’s exactly what researchers at the University of Pennsylvania did in a recent study, examining data from follow-up visits by 6,153 patients who were discharged from the hospital. 

The key metric was the post-discharge primary care visit completion rate (the number of people who completed recommended follow-up visits with a primary care doctor after leaving the hospital). Why is this rate important? Because timely follow-up visits are associated with lower rates of readmission to hospital. No-show rates for these visits are historically high, which leads to lower-quality transitions of care.

Researchers compared completion rates for in-person and telemedicine post-discharge visits. They also compared the visit completion rate by race. Key findings include:

• Telemedicine users were 22.5% more likely to complete their first follow-up visit.

• On average, telemedicine users saw a primary care doctor 1.4 days earlier.

• Telemedicine visits narrowed the disparities in visit completion rates of Black and White patients. According to the study, many Black patients face barriers to accessing primary care, including disparities in distance from clinics, which are only compounded while recovering from a hospital stay.

These results demonstrate virtual care’s power to support patients following hospital stays, providing essential follow-up care and support during a time when many people have questions about their recovery and medications. 

People’s increasing preference for telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has created a great opportunity to study the impact of virtual care on our lives. This study joins a growing body of research demonstrating virtual care’s beneficial impact for people across the healthcare spectrum.