The J.D. Energy 2024 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Examine launched on Thursday exhibits a slight lower, down 1% from final yr, in affected person satisfaction with direct-to-consumer telehealth suppliers and a considerable improve, up 18%, in satisfaction with payer-provided telehealth choices.
The examine, primarily based on 4,070 healthcare shoppers’ responses inside the previous 12 months, measures sufferers’ satisfaction with telehealth providers primarily based on seven components: ease of receiving care, digital channels, whether or not a supplier met their wants, degree of belief, scheduling appointments, folks, and saving time or cash.
It finds that 65% of survey respondents stated the highest cause for utilizing telehealth is comfort, with 46% saying they used it as a result of capability to obtain care rapidly and 30% as a consequence of having a situation that is lined by way of a telehealth go to.
The examine famous a tie between problem with web/mobile connectivity (25%) and restricted providers supplied (25%) as being the highest limitations to shoppers receiving telehealth, and 15% stated that they had information safety issues with private/medical info.
Customers famous they like telehealth for treatment evaluate and persistent care follow-up.
Virtually one-third (74%) of shoppers who had a constructive expertise with treatment evaluate stated they might use the service once more. As compared, solely 58% of these with a problematic expertise stated they might use telehealth once more.
Forty-four p.c of telehealth sufferers with persistent circumstances who had a straightforward expertise stated they might use the service once more. In distinction, 28% of those that had a adverse expertise stated they might use telehealth once more.
Sufferers lined by Medicaid, Gen Y and Gen Z people, and people dwelling in city environments had the very best general satisfaction with digital care suppliers.
Medicaid sufferers and people privately insured, together with child boomers, older generations, and people dwelling in suburban environments, had the bottom satisfaction with telehealth suppliers.
“The telehealth market has grown quickly, and though its utilization has been normalized in recent times, we’re nonetheless in a progress part the place people can have vastly completely different experiences primarily based on the suppliers they use, their medical circumstances and even issues like the standard of web and telephone connections the place they dwell,” stated Christopher Lis, managing director of world healthcare intelligence at J.D. Energy, stated in an announcement.
“Most shoppers agree that telehealth is hard to beat in terms of comfort and accessing care rapidly, however it’s not the best channel for all healthcare encounters. The broad variation in affected person expertise is one thing telehealth suppliers, insurers and public well being officers will need to monitor carefully.”
THE LARGER TREND
Telehealth use surged through the pandemic. Now that the pandemic has slowed, telemedicine has remained part of sufferers’ experiences, particularly in comparison with pre-pandemic occasions, although the usage of the modality varies amongst suppliers.
Earlier this yr, the CDC Nationwide Middle for Well being Statistics launched information from the Nationwide Digital Well being Information Survey, citing that in 2021, 27.4% extra medical specialists used telemedicine for half of their affected person visits, greater than major care physicians and surgical specialists.
Major care physicians (76.7%) and medical specialists (73.1%) have been in a position to present sufferers with the same high quality of care as in-person visits, and each have been extra more likely to be happy with the expertise in comparison with surgical specialists, 49.7% of which stated telemedicine was not applicable for his or her specialty or sufferers.