Virtual care expansion in the Veterans Health Administration during the COVID-19 pandemic: clinical services and patient characteristics associated with utilization.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To describe the shift from in-person to virtual care within Veterans Affairs (VA) during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify at-risk patient populations who require greater resources to overcome access barriers to virtual care.

Materials and methods

Outpatient encounters (N = 42 916 349) were categorized by care type (eg, primary, mental health, etc) and delivery method (eg, in-person, video). For 5 400 878 Veterans, we used generalized linear models to identify patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with: 1) use of virtual (phone or video) care versus no virtual care and 2) use of video care versus no video care between March 11, 2020 and June 6, 2020.

Results

By June, 58% of VA care was provided virtually com

SUBMITTER: Ferguson JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7665538 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature