Health care resources can be scarce, especially for rural communities, and information on the effectiveness of different methods for delivering care is important to guide decisions about how to allocate resources most effectively. While telehealth use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, some previous studies1 have suggested that telehealth might be a less efficient method of care than in-person visits for acute conditions. We sought to determine which specialties were able to fulfill patient needs using telehealth and which required in-person follow-up visits more often.
We examined more than 35 million telehealth visits conducted between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2022, to determine the overall rates of telehealth visits by specialty and to identify how often these visits require in-person follow-up within the same specialty. We found that high follow-up rates were present only in specialties that unavoidably require regular visits with an in-person component for hands-on care, such as obstetrics and surgery.
Genetics and nutrition were the specialties that made the most efficient use of telehealth visits. Their rates of needing in-person follow-up care in the three months after the telehealth visit were 4% and 10%, respectively. Other specialties that made heavy use of telehealth had slightly higher rates of in-person follow-up, but many of these follow-ups may be additional appointments that are not duplicative but rather part of a regular cadence of care, such as monthly mental health visits.
These findings suggest that, for many specialties, telehealth visits are typically an efficient use of resources and are unlikely to require in-person follow-up care. If telehealth is not duplicative of in-person visits for those specialties, it can be an effective tool to help expand access to care2.
