Study reports rapid increase in telehealth use in US hospitals

The percentage of U.S. hospitals offering telemedicine services rose sharply between 2017 and 2021, according to the results of a new study. In 2017, the percentage of hospitals offering at least one telemedicine was 46%, increasing to 72% in 2021.

The study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine was conducted between 2017 and 2022 and covered the critical phases of the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of individual telemedicine encounters fell from 114 million in 2020 to 194.4 million in 2021 as the Covid-19 pandemic forced providers to quickly transition to virtual care in many scenarios.

“Our findings demonstrate the rapid acceleration of telemedicine adoption, especially in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.” said John Jiang, PhD, professor of accounting and information systems at Michigan State University, who led the study. “However, we also found significant implementation differences across different hospital types and persistent health information exchange challenges that must be addressed to fully realize the benefits of telemedicine.”

But is the increase in telehealth use solely due to the pandemic?

“The pandemic was certainly an accelerant, but all the other necessary elements to increase telehealth use were in place,” said Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA and board member and senior clinical advisor for the American Telemedicine Association. “For example, during Covid, people became more comfortable with video calls, and patients and doctors also became more comfortable communicating virtually.”

The study used data from the American Hospital Association’s annual survey and the organization’s supplemental IT survey, which includes information about electronic health records, data sharing and electronic data use. In addition to supply and use, the study also looked at barriers to implementation, finding that smaller for-profit centers and hospitals tended to have less telemedicine availability than centers that were larger, academic, and/or not-for-profit.

“Smaller healthcare organizations are lean-running organizations, typically with a margin of around 3%, making it more difficult to determine the type of investment needed,” Kvedar said. “One model we could look at not only for small organizations – when physicians were incentivized to take over medical records in 2010. It could be very powerful if the federal government created funding programs like this to support telehealth services.”

The survey also revealed issues with electronic health information exchange, with 85% of hospitals surveyed reporting data exchange issues due to using different vendor platforms with different usability. Another finding was that while 90% of hospitals surveyed allowed patients to view and download their own medical records, only 41% of these allowed data to be submitted online.

“By addressing adoption disparities and overcoming technical barriers, we can create a more accessible, efficient and patient-centered healthcare system,” said Jiang. “The rapid growth we have seen shows the potential; now is the time to ensure that all patients and caregivers can take full advantage of these technological advances.”