Telemedicine from Home or the Office: Perceptions of Mental Health Providers

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rapid transition to telemedicine for mental health care and redefined many providers' work environments and practices. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of work location on telemental health (TMH) benefits, disruptions, and concerns to further understand the rapid implementation of telemedicine for mental health treatment. Methods: A sample of 175 practicing TMH providers completed an online survey between July and August 2020. Providers answered questions about personal demographics and practice characteristics. Next, they answered questions about benefits, disruptions, and concerns regarding the use of telemedicine in their practice. Chi-square and independent samples t-test were conducted to identify work location differences for personal demographics and clinical practice characteristics. Three multivariate analyses of covariance were conducted to examine overall differences in perceptions of telemedicine benefits, concerns, and disruptions based on work location while covarying for provider race, ethnicity, percentage of caseload seen through telemedicine, practice type, specialty, and primary method of reimbursement. Results: TMH providers who primarily work from an office reported more benefit of reduced costs/overhead (η_p² = 0.039), less benefit of limiting the spread of the virus (η_p² = 0.028), and more concern about reimbursement (η_p² = 0.046) than those who primarily work from home. We observed no difference in disruptions, patient access to care, quality of care, and work-life balance. Discussion: Exploration into work location of TMH providers aids in understanding of clinical workflows and provider wellbeing. Our findings suggest that telemedicine may be easily integrated into different types of clinical workflows and work locations.