{"id":17754,"date":"2023-10-02T17:20:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T22:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/resources\/?p=17754"},"modified":"2023-11-10T10:51:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T15:51:12","slug":"hold-the-phone-the-hang-up-on-telehealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/resources\/blog\/article\/hold-the-phone-the-hang-up-on-telehealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold the Phone: The Hang-Up on Telehealth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Managing a practice today increasingly requires not just business acumen but marketing expertise. To grow your practice, serve more patients and establish yourself within a community, you\u2019ll need some basic market research \u2014 and knowing how to use it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At Zocdoc, we\u2019ve got the tools to set you up for success: For providers, our marketplace captures important patient data, so you can dial into the latest trends and pivot your practice accordingly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read on to learn more about reaching patients wherever they are to provide care \u2014 and how understanding these trends can help you serve them better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Telehealth Has Its Place, But\u2026<\/h2>\n

During COVID-19 lockdowns, both patients and providers needed a way to meet health goals without risking the spread of potentially harmful illnesses. Many patients opted to see providers virtually, without leaving the comfort and safety of home. In April and May of 2020, telehealth bookings on Zocdoc soared to about one-third (34 percent) of all appointments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve moved beyond the acute phase of the pandemic, patients prefer to see their medical providers in person. Just 18 percent of bookings on Zocdoc were for telehealth visits in April and May 2023. Without mental health appointments, the only specialty that remains heavily virtual-first, virtual visits drop to just 8 percent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, in-person care is once again the norm for most specialties. From January to May 2023, virtually all eye and dental appointments booked on Zocdoc took place in person. The same holds for the vast majority of ob\/gyn, ENT, dermatology and orthopedics appointments.<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, our data shows that there\u2019s a time and a place for virtual care delivery. Primary care and urgent care appointments, which can serve a triaging function and may not always require a physical exam, have maintained a higher number of virtual visits. Still, more than 8 in 10 PCP bookings (83 percent) were for in-person appointments, and three-quarters of urgent care visits took place in-clinic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mental health is the exception that proves the rule, thanks to the structure of talk therapy. Ninety percent of appointments with mental health professionals are still booked for telehealth. This is great for expanding access to mental healthcare, as <\/span>recent evidence<\/span><\/a> shows that certain types of mental healthcare can be just as effective online as in an office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following Up in Person<\/h2>\n

Among patients who opt for online visits in any specialty, Zocdoc found that many live within commuting distance (50 miles) of their medical provider\u2019s office. This suggests that patients who are booking virtually might want the option of in-person follow-up visits. In fact, our data shows that across many specialties, most patients end up seeing their providers in-clinic after an initial online appointment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zocdoc data from spring 2021 found that nearly half of ob\/gyn and eye patients saw their providers in person after an online visit. A generous portion of dermatology (34 percent), dental (31 percent) and primary care (23 percent) patients also went to in-person appointments following online consultations. Urgent care and mental health patients tend to remain virtual for subsequent visits, but those are outlier specialties among our data.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Takeaway?<\/h2>\n

Patient preferences continue to shift back toward in-person care \u2014 but providers shouldn\u2019t discount telehealth altogether. Flexibility is crucial for today\u2019s patients. According to our data, providers (excluding mental health specialists) who offer both in-person and telehealth visits are more popular than those who offer just one option. Patients want to choose the right mode of care for their specific health needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pivoting your offerings and your operations can take some extra time and strategy. However, a practice whose offerings coincide with its patients\u2019 preferences can support more happy, healthy patients. In that light, rethinking how you help patients navigate their healthcare journey is a more than worthwhile investment.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Managing a practice today increasingly requires not just business acumen but marketing expertise. To grow your practice, serve more patients and establish yourself within a community, you\u2019ll need some basic market research \u2014 and knowing how to use it.\u00a0 At Zocdoc, we\u2019ve got the tools to set you up for success: For providers, our marketplace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[121,116,117,122],"class_list":["post-17754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patient-experience","tag-general-healthcare","tag-mental-health","tag-psychiatrist","tag-specialist"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHold the Phone: The Hang-Up on Telehealth - Practice Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Patient preferences continue to shift back toward in-person care \u2014 but providers shouldn\u2019t discount telehealth altogether.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/resources\/blog\/article\/hold-the-phone-the-hang-up-on-telehealth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hold the Phone: The Hang-Up on Telehealth - 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