Table 3.

Physicians’ Perceptions of “Silver Linings” of Telehealth for Primary Care Patients.

“Silver Linings” for patients	Perspectives of primary care providers
Easier for patients with certain medical conditions to receive care	I take care of a large population of patients with autism, and many of them really struggle to come into the office due to environmental challenges or changes to structure in the normal day or whatever it may be. And I’ve actually found many like, I’ve had many people say, well this is so great, can we do this all the time? You know, just because it takes away that extra burden. (G) They may be more comfortable when they’re sitting at home versus in your clinic and talking to you about their mental disorders. You know, they’re in a more comfortable environment. (I) I do a lot of mental health and so those visits, the fact that those visits increased during this time was I think helpful for a lot of people because they’re like hey, you know, I need to talk to somebody about this, but I don’t have, you know, I don’t want to go into the office, especially if I’m super nervous. So I think there’s been good feedback for those types of visits especially. (S)
Provided patients with a convenient follow-up care modality	I think it’s pushed us to realize that there’s opportunity for telemedicine more than we’re using, and that it’s very convenient for patients. My no-show rate for telemedicine is really, really, really, really low. You know, because you know, they’re there. Everyone’s got their phone on them. (G) I think some patients really find it to be very convenient, Happy with it. They probably have been reaching out to have visits more often. (K) Yeah, I’ve had people say things like, if I’d known I could have been seeing you like this all the time, I would have done it instead of bringing my baby and going all around. Just the convenience of it has been a major thing that people said. I’ve asked people how they’d like their next visit to be, and I don’t think I’ve had a single person say that they want it to be in person. (M)
Enabled patients to get quick specialty referrals and visits	Now when I see a patient, they can still have a counseling session with my social worker over telehealth next week versus you know, if they had transportation issues, maybe they were not might not have been seen for several weeks. (C) I’ve actually had people being able to get in with counselors or actually specialists and other things, so if we’re talking about like an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) or an allergist visit, they’ve actually been able to get in quicker because all of those providers have openings in their telehealth schedule. (S) If I have like a clinical question, that’s pretty straightforward, then I can do an E-consult. Patient doesn’t have to go in for an appointment and I get the answer typically within the day. And if the patient needs to be seen, then the dermatologist says, oh, I gotta see this one and routes it to their staff and they get them seen within a day or two usually. It’s really amazing. (T)