5 Reasons Why Telemedicine is Here to Stay

Telemedicine adoption over the last decade has been notoriously slow, but with the advent of the COVID-19 epidemic, consumers are rapidly turning to video visits to avoid the risk and stress of going to see a provider in-person. This shift in consumer behavior has driven significant demand for telemedicine on Solv, but many urgent cares have still been hesitant to adopt a new, unknown technology. Because we had such a strong demand in video visit requests, Solv was able to gather quick and actionable data around consumer preferences and adoption of telemedicine via a post-visit survey, but at a high level, consumers are satisfied with their experience–we’ve seen a net promoter score (NPS) from patients of 80–which confirms that consumers are receiving the care they need during these uncertain and stressful times. Our five key findings from the survey are outlined here:

1. Patients are satisfied with their experience with a virtual provider: 90% of telemedicine patients described their visit as “good” or “awesome!”

Everything from the scheduling experience, to seeing the provider to completing a payment ranks very highly from consumers. We’ve been focused on building a telemed platform that doesn’t require patients to jump through hoops to book and appointment and see a provider and that’s reflected in the feedback. One patient left a comment that said, “I like that I didn’t have to download an app to use Solv....the entire experience was easy, and convenient.

2. Patients are satisfied with the outcome of their visits: 98% of patients “received the care they needed” via telemedicine

We know that some providers can be skeptical of their ability to deliver the same level of care over a video visit that they can in-person. While there’s inevitably certain things that can’t be done over video (strep test, a broken bone, stitches, etc.) 98% of patients felt that they received the care they needed through their telemedicine visit.

3. Patient loyalty remains strong: The number one reason patients selected the clinic for telemedicine was because they’d visited the clinic before

Consumers are comfortable with what’s familiar to them so it’s not surprising the the most important factor for consumers in choosing a provider for a telemedicine visit is if they’d already visited that urgent care. At a time when consumers are more hesitant to leave their home to visit a doctor, having some continuity of care across their provider is proving to be extremely important when they’re seeking care. We’ve heard from patients that, “Although the clinic is close to my house, during these times, it’s safer to video the appointment for a non-urgent cause.”

4. Consumers are willing to try this new technology: Nearly 80% of patients had never done a telemedicine visit before

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we’re seeing consumer adoption of telemed surge as well. We’ve known for a while that consumers have been open to trying telemed, with 66 percent of consumers in 2019 saying they’d be willing to use telemedicine, but prior to the coronavirus outbreak adoption had still been relatively low with only 8 percent of consumers actually having done a video visit with a provider. However, this is all changing as we’re seeing 80 percent of the consumers using telemedicine on Solv have never done a visit before with one consumer sharing, “It's the middle of the pandemic, I didn't want to risk going to urgent care for an RX.”

5. 94% of patients are more likely to visit the same provider again in the future because they offer telemedicine

Now that consumers are getting more used to having a doctor literally at their fingertips, this is creating an expectation for the option of telemedicine in the future–even after COVID-19 is under control. Consumer practically unanimously confirmed that having a telemedicine option makes them more likely to return to a provider again for future visits. We know consumers want and expect optionality when selecting their care and video visits are part of that new expectation.