Trends in the Volume and Types of Primary Care Visits during the Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel

Miron, Oren; Sagy, Yael Wolff; Yaron, Shlomit; Ramot, Noga; Lavie, Gil

doi:10.3390/ijerph191710601

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Six reported patients who used asynchronous telemedicine were younger on average than users of face-to-face consultations, 31 – 39 but use was reported across all age groups. Two studies found socioeconomic factors had no effect on uptake, 31 – 33 , 40 whereas others reported differences in use between religious and ethnic groups, 25 higher uptake from patients in rural areas, 28 , 41 and higher uptake from patients with higher education levels. 39 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Three studies compared the COVID-19 pandemic period with the period before the pandemic, 25 – 28 and one addressed only the pandemic period. 27 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(30) Four studies reported use of asynchronous telemedicine increased rapidly following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in March 2020. (37,(41)(42)(43) One study found 70.88% of users avoided face-toface primary care during the pandemic, (32) with e-consultation rates increasing from 5.61 per 1000 patients in March 2020 to 33.1 per 1000 patients in June 2020 in one healthcare system. ( 50) Despite increased use only 32% of practices in The Netherlands intended to continue using econsultations.…”

Section: Changes Following Covid-19 Pandemic Outbreakmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Effectiveness and safety of asynchronous telemedicine consultations in general practice: a systematic review

Leighton,

Cooper,

Porter

et al. 2023

BJGP Open

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundThere is a focus on increasing asynchronous telemedicine use, which allows medical data to be transmitted, stored, and interpreted later, but limited evidence of the quality of care it allows in general practice hinders this.AimInvestigate uses and effectiveness of asynchronous telemedicine in general practice according to the domains of healthcare quality and describe how the COVID-19 pandemic changed its use.Design & settingSystematic review in general practice.MethodA systematic search carried out across four databases using terms related to general practice, asynchronous telemedicine, uses and effectiveness, and supported by citation searching. Followed by screening according to pre-defined criteria, data extraction and critical appraisal. Narrative synthesis guided by the six domains of healthcare quality and exploring differences in use before and following the COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsSearches yielded 6,864 reports; 27 reports from 23 studies were included. Asynchronous telemedicine is used by a range of staff and patients across many countries. Safety and equity are poorly reported but there were no major safety concerns. Evidence from other domains of healthcare quality show effectiveness in making diagnoses, prescribing medications, replacing other consultations, providing timely care and increased convenience for patients. Efficiency is impacted by negative effects on workflow, through poor implementation and patient non-adherence, limiting usability and requiring new administrative approaches from healthcare staff. Asynchronous telemedicine use increased rapidly from March 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.ConclusionsAsynchronous telemedicine provides quality care for patients but is limited by reports of increased workload and inefficient workflow compared to face-to-face consultations. Limits of evidence include heterogeneity and small-scale studies. Further research into cost effectiveness, equity, safety, and sustained implementation will influence future policy and practice.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Three studies compared the COVID-19 pandemic period with the period before the pandemic, 25 – 28 and one addressed only the pandemic period. 27 …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Changes Following Covid-19 Pandemic Outbreakmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Effectiveness and safety of asynchronous telemedicine consultations in general practice: a systematic review

Leighton,

Cooper,

Porter

et al. 2023

BJGP Open

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, in California, effective as of June 15, 2021, Executive Order N-07-21 removed most restrictions including physical distancing because more than half of eligible Californians had received the full series of COVID-19 vaccinations [ 9 ]. A more recent study assessed health care utilization during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was conducted in Israel and limited to only primary care visits [ 10 ]. Thus, it remains unclear whether health care utilization returned to prepandemic levels across visit types by the end of 2021 in the United States.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Care Utilization in the Vaccine Safety Datalink: Retrospective Cohort Study

Qian,

Sy,

Hong

et al. 2024

JMIR Public Health Surveill

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Understanding the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care utilization is important to health care organizations and policy makers for strategic planning, as well as to researchers when designing studies that use observational electronic health record data during the pandemic period. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the changes in health care utilization across all care settings among a large, diverse, and insured population in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study within 8 health care organizations participating in the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project using electronic health record data from members of all ages from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2021. The visit rates per person-year were calculated monthly during the study period for 4 health care settings combined as well as by inpatient, emergency department (ED), outpatient, and telehealth settings, both among all members and members without COVID-19. Difference-in-difference analysis and interrupted time series analysis were performed to assess the changes in visit rates from the prepandemic period (January 2017 to February 2020) to the early pandemic period (April-December 2020) and the later pandemic period (July-December 2021), respectively. An exploratory analysis was also conducted to assess trends through June 2023 at one of the largest sites, Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Results The study included more than 11 million members from 2017 to 2021. Compared with the prepandemic period, we found reductions in visit rates during the early pandemic period for all in-person care settings. During the later pandemic period, overall use reached 8.36 visits per person-year, exceeding the prepandemic level of 7.49 visits per person-year in 2019 (adjusted percent change 5.1%, 95% CI 0.6%-9.9%); inpatient and ED visits returned to prepandemic levels among all members, although they remained low at 0.095 and 0.241 visits per person-year, indicating a 7.5% and 8% decrease compared to pre-pandemic levels among members without COVID-19, respectively. Telehealth visits, which were approximately 42% of the volume of outpatient visits during the later pandemic period, were increased by 97.5% (95% CI 86.0%-109.7%) from 0.865 visits per person-year in 2019 to 2.35 visits per person-year in the later pandemic period. The trends in Kaiser Permanente Southern California were similar to those of the entire study population. Visit rates from January 2022 to June 2023 were stable and appeared to be a continuation of the use levels observed at the end of 2021. Conclusions Telehealth services became a mainstay of the health care system during the late COVID-19 pandemic period. Inpatient and ED visits returned to prepandemic levels, although they remained low among members without evidence of COVID-19. Our findings provide valuable information for strategic resource allocation for postpandemic patient care and for designing observational studies involving the pandemic period.

show abstract

“…These advances, together with the worldwide outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), have dramatically accelerated the assimilation of telemedicine systems and services within the framework of primary care clinics, as documented over the last 3 years [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Like other countries, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel shifted rapidly and to a large extent into virtual health services [ 7 , 8 ]. This included synchronic consultations, that is, encounters that are a real-time interaction between the patient and the physician using a phone or video, as well as asynchronous encounters, which enable the patients to submit any request to the physician and to receive their response at a later time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Associated with Using Telemedicine in the Primary Care Clinics during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel

Reges

Feldhamer

Sagy

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic generated an extraordinary need for telemedicine. Objective: To identify the factors and multi-way interactions associated with telemedicine use in primary healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This population-based study included all members (2,722,773) aged ≥18 years of the largest healthcare organization in Israel who used primary care clinic services between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2021. Individuals were classified as telemedicine users (≥1 phone/video visits or asynchronous encounters) or non-telemedicine users (only in-person encounter/s). Results: Ethnicity was the most discriminative variable associated with telemedicine use, with 85% and 52% users among Jews and Arabs, respectively. Higher odds for telemedicine utilization were observed among women, residents of urban areas, those confined to home, individuals with high level of technology literacy, residents of the central area (in Jews only), young Jews, and older Arabs. Based on decision tree analysis, the segments of the population with the lowest telemedicine use were characterized by lower primary care needs and comorbidities, as well as low technology literacy. The proportion of telemedicine use in these groups was 56% and 27% in Jews and in Arabs, respectively. Conclusion: A proactive intervention program should be applied among populations who are less likely to use telemedicine in the primary care clinics, including Arabs, Jews who live in the distant periphery, and individuals with low technology literacy.

show abstract

Trends in the Volume and Types of Primary Care Visits during the Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Effectiveness and safety of asynchronous telemedicine consultations in general practice: a systematic review

Effectiveness and safety of asynchronous telemedicine consultations in general practice: a systematic review

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Care Utilization in the Vaccine Safety Datalink: Retrospective Cohort Study

Factors Associated with Using Telemedicine in the Primary Care Clinics during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About