Table 4.

Reasons provided by 221 respondents for telehealth visits being worse than traditional in-person medical visits, along with the frequency of overarching themes and subthemes with example quotes^a.

Code description			Example		Value, n (%)
­Communication is not as effective as face-to-face visits
	Lacks visual cues, eye contact, body language, and visual feedback; face-to-face visits are preferred	“The subtle facial expressions eye contact and body language are not the same”		54 (24.4)
	Less personal, less natural/comfortable, more awkward	“Difficult to establish rapport”		46 (20.8)
	Less effective; communication is not as good, less helpful, and harder/more difficult	“Communication on the phone is less effective”		45 (20.4)
	Face-to-face interaction is needed for mental health appointments	“I feel a big part of effective mental health care involves face-to-face conversation”		19 (8.6)
	More anxiety provoking for some	“Phone call and videos make me extremely anxious”		5 (2.3)
	Less privacy	“Lack of privacy”		3 (1.4)
The inability to be physically examined
	Physical exam is not possible	“Could not have a physical exam done”		60 (27.1)
	Tests could not be performed	“Blood pressure not taken”		17 (7.7)
Limitations with technology
	Technology issues, including poor connection, bad reception, poor audio quality, and Zoom calls dropping out	“Due to audio quality I was not able to get names of chemotherapy drugs correctly - so when I tried to look up info later I couldn’t until I was able to get info from Breast care nurse so this added to days of anxiety due to lack of info over weekend and when that staff member on leave.”		20 (9)
	Poor quality connection led to poor quality conversation	“Harder to communicate due to tech difficulties, lag issues”		6 (2.7)
Issues with obtaining prescriptions and pathology results
	Harder to obtain prescriptions	“I had to wait for scripts to be emailed to the pharmacy, then one was missing, which I could have seen at the time had I received them in person.”		10 (4.5)
	Increased wait time/delayed access	“If you need a script or referral, you have to make a separate trip to go get the paper”		7 (3.2)
	Unable to access pathology results	“Getting blood tests has become more difficult.”		2 (0.9)
Reduced confidence in doctor/health professional
	Not as comprehensive or thorough	“Not as comprehensive and thorough”		25 (11.3)
	Time pressure	“Felt rushed”		18 (8.1)
	Lack of confidence in assessment/ diagnosis	“Less trust that the diagnosis is accurate”		11 (5)
Additional burden for complex care
	Face-to-face visit required due to complex issues	“I had to go in for a face-face consult because the medical issues could not be diagnosed”		15 (6.8)
	Delays due to complex issues	“More complex issues have been delayed until we can do face-to-face”		5 (2.3)
	Added burden of having 2 consults	“In both instances after having the Telehealth calls, I had to go in for a face to face consults because the issues could not be diagnosed over the phone”		4 (1.8)

^aFull text could have more than 1 theme applied.