April 27, 2020
A new study conducted by researchers at Harvard University and Phreesia, a health care technology company, has revealed the impact of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-2019) on outpatient care practices. According to an article presented by the Commonwealth Fund, the researchers analyzed data on changes in outpatient visits for an excess of 50,000 providers, all of whom were Phreesia clients. The analysis demonstrated how declines in visits varied by both patient type and geographic area.
The outpatient data analyses revealed the following:
- Visits to ambulatory practices declined nearly 60 percent since the middle of March 2020 and have remained low.
- Dramatic declines in the number of visits have been observed in all regions, especially in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.
- As the number of in-person visits declined, telehealth services increased. However, telehealth visits only partially offset the drop of in-person visits.
- Approximately 30 percent of all visits at the surveyed ambulatory practices are now provided by telemedicine services.
- The decline in visits was more severe in surgical and procedural specialties than for other specialties such as adult primary care, obstetrics/gynecology, oncology, and behavioral health services.
- The decline in visits was more pronounced among school-age children and older adults.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how outpatient care is delivered in health care practices. To decrease the risk of transmitting the virus to either patients or health care workers within their practice, providers are deferring elective and preventive visits, such as annual physicals. When possible, they also are converting in-person visits to telemedicine visits. For their part, many patients are also avoiding visits because they do not want to leave their homes and become exposed. Also influencing both provider and patient behavior are local and state recommendations restricting travel and nonessential services.