WASHINGTON, June 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In the future,
we may look back on physician practice waiting rooms with nostalgia
as more care is received through virtual visits, such as
telehealth. That future is becoming less distant, according to a
new Virtual Visits Consumer Choice Survey from Advisory Board.
Up to 77% of consumers would consider seeing a provider
virtually—and 19% already have, according to the survey. The
results suggest that the health care industry has largely
underestimated and, to date, failed to meet consumer interest in
virtual care.
"Across industries, consumers have become accustomed to using
virtual technology for both real-time and asynchronous
interactions. Health care providers can no longer wait to catch
up," said Tom Cassels, National
Strategy Partner at Advisory Board. "Providers have designed care
access around their own convenience and will increasingly find
patients willing to pay for their own convenience and alternatives
to driving to physician offices for medical expertise."
Virtual access to care provides well-documented benefits, such
as improved access to providers, greater efficiency and
flexibility, and comparable care outcomes. But when Advisory Board
conducted hundreds of interviews with health care leaders,
researchers discovered a common barrier to growing a mature
program—physician resistance.
Many physicians perceive their patients as only being interested
in having an in-person relationship with their doctor, especially
when it comes to specialty services. The survey results indicate
otherwise.
Consumers Pick Most Popular Virtual Visits
The survey tested many types of virtual visits and found many
interested over 70% of respondents, including a prescription
question or refill, pre-surgery and select post-operation
appointments, receiving ongoing results from an oncologist, and
ongoing care for chronic condition management. Select pregnancy
checkups, weight loss or smoking cessation coaching, dermatology
consults, and psychologist consults also ranked among top
offerings.
Overall, the majority of the nearly 5,000 survey respondents
reported that they would be willing to consider a virtual visit in
each of the 21 primary and specialty care scenarios tested.
Advisory Board's survey also found consumer concerns with
virtual visits. Notably, care quality was the top concern with a
virtual visit (identified by 21% of survey respondents), followed
by the provider not being able to diagnose or treat them virtually
(19%), meaning they would have to go to the physical clinic anyway.
Only 9% of respondents said they had no concerns about virtual
visits. Health care providers will need to respond to consumers'
top concerns in order to actually convert interested prospects into
virtual patients.
Open Opportunities for Patient Engagement
"Direct-to-consumer virtual specialty and chronic care are
largely untapped frontiers," said Emily
Zuehlke, Consultant, Research at Advisory Board. "As
consumers increasingly shop for convenient, affordable health
care—and as payers' interest in low-cost access continues to
grow—this survey suggests that consumers are likely to reward those
who offer virtual visits for specialty and chronic care."
While these survey results should be a wake-up call to health
care providers, they must realize that virtual visits are not
appropriate for all providers or appealing to all patients. Most
significantly, reimbursement and regulations vary by state and an
integration strategy is critical to connecting virtual patients
with future in-person care.
The Virtual Visits Consumer Choice Survey is Advisory Board's
ninth nationwide consumer choice survey designed to better
understand the tradeoffs that consumers make when they need
different types of care. This MaxDiff survey asked 4,879 consumers
across the United States about
their interest in and experience with telehealth.
For more on the findings from the new survey, please see
our article for Health Data Management or our
briefing for hospital and health system members of Market
Innovation Center. For questions about the surveys,
please contact Sarah Rosen.
About Advisory Board
Advisory Board is a best practices firm that uses a combination
of research, technology, and consulting to improve the performance
of 4,400+ health care organizations. As the health care business of
The Advisory Board Company (NASDAQ: ABCO), Advisory Board forges
and finds the best new ideas and proven practices from its network
of thousands of leaders, then customizes and hardwires them into
every level of member organizations, creating enduring value. For
more information, visit www.advisory.com.
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SOURCE The Advisory Board Company