![]() ![]() Three-quarters of those video visits were in primary care (internal and adult family medicine), pediatrics, dermatology, after-hours care and psychiatry. Kaiser Permanente employs a number of different methods for interacting with patients via telemedicine, including phone, secure email message, and video. Video visits accounted for a small proportion during the study period - less than 1 percent. “We think this is the largest analysis of video visits in an integrated health care setting.” Co-author and Kaiser Permanente podiatric surgeon Craig Wargon, MD, is medical director of the TPMG Technology Group. “The evidence on integrating video visits into ongoing clinical care is limited,” Reed said. At the time of the study, Kaiser Permanente did not charge any co-payments or deductibles for video visits. The study, “Real-time patient-provider video telemedicine integrated with clinical care,” looked at more than 200,000 video visits conducted in 2015, 20 in Northern California, and included an online survey of nearly 1,300 members who chose to schedule a video visit with their physician. Members can now self-schedule video appointments online at kp.org and communicate face-to-face with physicians on a mobile phone, computer or tablet. Kaiser Permanente Northern California began offering video visits across the region in 2011, and they became widely available in mid-2014. “One of the strengths of this option is that you can maintain a stronger relationship with your own doctor through video.” “Many patients reported that the video visit actually improved the relationship with their clinician,” said lead author Mary Reed, DrPH, research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. Kaiser Permanente members who chose video visits were overwhelmingly satisfied with this new way to “see” their doctor, according to research correspondence published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The reports were shared widely and prompted local leaders to share best practices with one another to improve processes, according to the health care network.Kaiser Permanente research finds that members appreciate being able to connect with their doctors online Mary Reed’s research is showing that Kaiser Permanente members feel video visits strengthen the doctor-patient relationship. Kaiser Permanente generated weekly reports on virtual visits, which included the medical assistant rooming rate and video connection rate. “We found a very high rate of success during a challenging time of the pandemic.” “There’s always a chance that technology will fail or you won’t have good enough reception,” said Reed a scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. Overall, the study found 87% of video visits had a successful connection, “which is stellar in my opinion,” Reed said. The initiative included “virtual rooming,” in which medical assistants called patients 15 minutes before visits to aid in connecting them with physicians.īased on trends from October 2020, the practice increased connection rates for all patients, including those in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods (11.4%), Black patients (12.1%), Latino patients (9.8%), Asian patients (8.1%) and white patients (5.2%).įor those needing language interpretation, connections with assistance were an estimated 13.1% higher, compared with 7.4% for those not needing interpretation, according to the study. The Permanente Medical Group developed a regionwide initiative to promote and support video care. In March 2020, the health care system saw a rapid increase in the number of video visits when in-person medical care was reduced to limit COVID-19 virus transmission. Kaiser Permanente Northern California has 9,500 physicians treating 4.5 million members. The data was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. “Our study didn’t identify exactly how this happens, but we believe it is because the medical assistant is available to walk patients through the technology and provide encouragement and a human connection.” “The involvement of a medical assistant seemed to reduce the technology gap,” senior author Mary Reed, DrPH, said in a news release. The connections especially benefited patients who needed language interpretation or lived in a low-socioeconomic status neighborhood, according to the health care network. Video visits had better connection rates between patients and primary care doctors when medical assistants began the calls during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report by Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research. ![]()
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