Telehealth in the COVID-19 era: A balancing act to avoid harm (February 2021)

Summary

The telehealth revolution in response to COVID-19 has increased essential health care access during an unprecedented public health crisis. However, virtual patient care can also limit the patient-provider relationship, quality of examination, efficiency of health care delivery, and overall quality of care.

Authors of this article, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, offer some simple guidelines that could assist healthcare providers and clinic schedulers in determining the appropriateness of a telehealth visit by considering visit types, patient characteristics, and chief complaint or disease states.