Published: 1/8/2021 -
Telehealth use soars during the pandemic, here to stay
BY MARK SANCHEZ Sunday, January 03, 2021 05:20pm
Spectrum Health entered 2020 with a goal of having half of eligible primary care patient visits with its doctors occur virtually by the end of 2022.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in physician offices in Michigan being closed for three months in the spring, leading medical practices to redirect patients to telehealth platforms to connect with their doctors for low-acuity, routine care.
The result was exponential growth in virtual visits in 2020 after years of gradually gaining traction with consumers. At Spectrum Health, virtual primary care visits with doctors via the OnDemand telehealth service hit 35,000 in April 2020. That one-month total exceeded all of 2019.
Dr. Kristopher Brenner, a family...