Telehealth was Beneficial during COVID-19 for Older Americans: A Qualitative Study with Physicians

National Library of Medicine: Telehealth was Beneficial during COVID-19 for Older Americans: A Qualitative Study with Physicians – Interviews with physician from September to November 2020 identified five major telehealth themes: (1) telehealth uptake was rapid and iterative, (2) telehealth improved the safety of medical care, (3) use cases were specialty-specific (for geriatricians and primary care physicians telehealth substituted for in-person visits; for emergency physicians it primarily supplemented in-person visits), (4) physicians altered clinical care to overcome older patient barriers to telehealth use, and (5) telehealth use among physicians declined in mid-April 2020, due primarily to patient needs and administrator preferences, not physician factors.