Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine: The Impact of Telehealth on Primary Care Physician Panel Sizes: A Modeling Study

Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine: The Impact of Telehealth on Primary Care Physician Panel Sizes: A Modeling Study

This study explores the potential for telehealth to significantly increase physician capacity by reducing nonvalue adding activities and patient no-shows. The study found that tele-visits reduce the nonvalue-added time physicians spend with patients as well as patient no-shows. At current levels of tele-visit utilization, the use of tele-visits may translate into more than a 10 percent increase in patient panel sizes assuming a modest reduction in visit durations and no-shows, and as much as a 30 percent increase assuming that half of all visits could be effectively conducted virtually and result in a greater reduction in visit durations and no-shows. The findings suggest that using telehealth for many routine encounters is a reduction in wasted physician time and a substantial increase in the number of patients that a primary care physician can care for without jeopardizing access to care.