Health care utilization following "digi-physical" assessment compared to physical assessment for infectious symptoms in primary care.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The use of chat-based digital visits (eVisits) to assess infectious symptoms in primary care is rapidly increasing. The "digi-physical" model of care uses eVisits as the first line of assessment while assuming a certain proportion of patients will inevitably need to be further assessed through urgent physical examination within 48 h. It is unclear to what extent this approach can mitigate physical visits compared to assessing patients directly using office visits.

Methods

This pre-COVID-19-pandemic observational study followed up "digi-physical" eVisit patients (n = 1188) compared to office visit patients (n = 599) with respiratory or urinary symptoms. Index visits occurred between March 30th 2016 and March 29th 2019. The primary outcome was subseque

SUBMITTER: Entezarjou A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8753946 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature