The start of the COVID-19 pandemic caused telehealth levels to surge across ambulatory care as both providers and patients pivoted to find safe access to health care and reduce spreading COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic, providers conducted telehealth services at extremely low levels--less than 1% of ambulatory visits across AAMC-Vizient Clinical Practice Solutions Center (CPSC) organizations. At the height of COVID-19, telehealth visits in primary care surged to 67% across CPSC organizations. This dramatic shift in care delivery was made possible by significant regulatory changes, as well as significant changes in provider and patient openness to telehealth. Telehealth use varies significantly by specialty, with certain conditions and levels of acuity more appropriate for telehealth. Vizient and the AAMC partnered to study telehealth sustainability in primary care, including general internal medicine, family medicine, and geriatrics. Primary care serves a diverse and complex patient population, and telehealth has proven to be a fundamental tool for health systems and providers to meet the access challenges of delivering care to their patients.
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