Post-Telemedicine Acute Care for Undifferentiated High-Acuity Conditions: Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?

Objectives: Telemedicine use increased substantially with the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding of the impact of telemedicine modality (video vs. phone) on post-telemedicine acute care for higher risk conditions is limited. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of telemedicine visits, comparing video with telephone, for selected diagnoses with potentially higher illness acuity, evaluating post-telemedicine emergency department (ED) and hospitalization rates. In a large, multicenter cohort of adult patient-initiated primary care telemedicine visits from March 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021, we evaluated 7-day ED and hospitalization rates for higher acuity diagnostic categories (cardiac, gastrointestinal, and respiratory) by telemedicine modality, provider familiarity, and patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Results: Among 431,705 telemedicine encounters, 128,129 (29.7%) were video visits and 303,576 (70.3%) were telephone visits. Adjusting for patient and appointment factors, telephone encounters for cardiac conditions were associated with significantly higher 7-day ED visit rates than video encounters (5.5% vs. 4.9%, respectively) but similar hospitalization rates (0.7% vs. 0.8%, respectively); for gastrointestinal conditions, post-telemedicine adjusted ED and hospitalization rates were comparable between telemedicine modalities (4.0% for ED and 1.2% vs. 1.3% for hospitalization, respectively); among respiratory conditions, video encounters were associated with higher ED and hospitalization rates than telephone encounters (ED: 5.9% after video vs. 5.2% after phone; hospitalization: 1.9% after video vs. 1.5% after phone). Telemedicine encounters with patients' own primary care provider (PCP) were associated with lower adjusted rates of ED use across all conditions and modalities. Conclusions: Short-term ED and hospitalization rates following primary care video or telephone visits for selected acute, high-risk conditions varied by condition and PCP familiarity. Nuanced use of video visits may confer benefits triaging to downstream acute care.