Association Between Clinician-Level Factors and Patient Outcomes in Virtual and In-Person Outpatient Treatment for...

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Addiction Medicine
• Telehealth

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of virtual treatment services.
• Large-scale research on virtual treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) has lagged behind this rapid expansion.
• Understanding factors influencing outcomes in virtual SUD treatment is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between clinician-level factors and patient outcomes in virtual and in-person intensive outpatient services for SUD.
• To identify predictors of patient no-shows and successful discharge with staff approval.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 1410 patients discharged from virtual intensive outpatient programs (VIOP) and in-person intensive outpatient programs (IOP) between January 2020 and March 2021.
• Patient data were nested within 58 treatment providers.
• Clinician-level factors examined included empathy, technology comfort, perceived stress, resistance to change, and demographics.

Main Results:

• Patients in VIOP experienced fewer no-shows and higher rates of discharge with staff approval compared to IOP.
• Clinician empathy and lower personal distress were associated with reduced no-shows in VIOP.
• Perspective-taking, lower personal distress, male clinician gender, and higher patient load were associated with in-person no-shows and successful discharges.

Conclusions:

• Virtual intensive outpatient programs (VIOP) demonstrated superior patient retention and successful discharge rates.
• Clinician-level factors showed limited significant associations with patient outcomes in this study.
• Further research is needed to elucidate the complex interplay between clinician characteristics, patient load, and patient retention in SUD treatment.