A recent study set out to look at the impact of telemedicine on no-show patients…

Telemedicine provides patients with a convenient method of communication with providers. However, little is known about accessibility of telemedicine among surgical patients. We aimed to assess the association of telemedicine use with patient no-show visits.

The results…

Telemedicine is associated with 79% reduction in odds of no-show visits, which are more frequent among historically vulnerable populations. Telemedicine’s convenience may serve as an intervention to improve health equity and access.

The details…

There were 553,475 visits, of which 11.3% were no-show. Most visits were in the historical control (54.1%) compared to contemporary control (41.5%) and case visits (4.4%). No-show visits were most frequent among in-person (11.7%) compared to telemedicine visits (2.5%, p<0.001). On logistic regression, no-show visits were more common among male (aOR:1.12, 95%CI:1.09-1.15) patients, Black (aOR:1.68, 95%CI:1.64-1.73) and Asian (aOR:1.32, 95%CI:1.21-1.44, ref: White) patients, patients insured with Medicaid (OR:2.0, 95%CI:1.94-2.06, ref: Private), patients from counties with higher Social Vulnerability Index (OR:1.13, 95%CI:1.06-1.21), and Friday visits (OR:1.15, 95%CI:1.1-1.2, ref: Monday). No-show visits were less common among older patients (OR:0.98, 95%CI:0.98-0.98), those insured with Medicare (OR:0.83, 95%CI:0.76-0.91), and telemedicine visits (OR:0.21, 95%CI:0.19-0.24) and contemporary control (OR:0.93, 95%CI:0.91-0.95, ref: retrospective control) cohorts.