TY - JOUR
T1 - Age and Medicare Insurance are Barriers to Telemedicine Access—A Quality Improvement Project
AU - Madabhushi, Vashisht
AU - McLouth, Christopher J.
AU - King, Robert
AU - Bhakta, Avinash
AU - Beck, Sandra
AU - Patel, Jitesh A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2023/5
Y1 - 2023/5
N2 - Background: Telehealth use has had widespread expansion and adoption over the past two years. This study aims to evaluate access to telehealth essentials (TE) using a novel metric. Methods: This single institute study surveyed outpatient surgical patients to determine their access to TE. Generalized linear mixed models were used to determine the relationship of demographic and county-level variables on access to four TE. Results: 138 patients were surveyed. Sixty-six (47.8%) were from Appalachian Kentucky. In the survey cohort, 122 (88.4%) had smart phones, 109 (80.7%) had devices with video messaging capabilities, 106 (80.9%) had cellular reception, and 112 (82.4%) had access to WiFi. Increasing age and Medicare insurance were the most consistent predictors of lack of access to TE. Conclusion: Rural Appalachian Kentucky has access to TE. Telehealth has the potential to decrease the healthcare inequity in rural populations, but incompletely address this inequity for the aging population.
AB - Background: Telehealth use has had widespread expansion and adoption over the past two years. This study aims to evaluate access to telehealth essentials (TE) using a novel metric. Methods: This single institute study surveyed outpatient surgical patients to determine their access to TE. Generalized linear mixed models were used to determine the relationship of demographic and county-level variables on access to four TE. Results: 138 patients were surveyed. Sixty-six (47.8%) were from Appalachian Kentucky. In the survey cohort, 122 (88.4%) had smart phones, 109 (80.7%) had devices with video messaging capabilities, 106 (80.9%) had cellular reception, and 112 (82.4%) had access to WiFi. Increasing age and Medicare insurance were the most consistent predictors of lack of access to TE. Conclusion: Rural Appalachian Kentucky has access to TE. Telehealth has the potential to decrease the healthcare inequity in rural populations, but incompletely address this inequity for the aging population.
KW - appalachia
KW - elderly
KW - medicare
KW - rural
KW - telehealth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123480807&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85123480807&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/00031348221074234
DO - 10.1177/00031348221074234
M3 - Article
C2 - 35062844
AN - SCOPUS:85123480807
SN - 0003-1348
VL - 89
SP - 1643
EP - 1649
JO - American Surgeon
JF - American Surgeon
IS - 5
ER -