Community Health Centers Uptake of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Trends, Barriers, and Successful Strategies

Abstract

Objective: To describe telemedicine use patterns and understand clinic’s approaches to shifting care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We used electronic health record data from 203 community health centers across 13 states between 01/01/2019 and 6/31/2021 to describe trends in telemedicine visit rates over time. Qualitative data were collected from 13 of those community health centers to understand factors influencing adoption and implementation of telemedicine. Results: Most clinics in our sample were in urban areas (n = 176) and served a majority of uninsured and publicly insured patients (12.8% and 44.4%, respectively) across racial and ethnic minority groups (16.6% Black and 29.3% Hispanic). During our analysis period there was a 791% increase in telemedicine visits from before the pandemic (.06% pre- vs 47.5% during). A latent class growth analysis was used to examine differences in patterns of adoption of telemedicine across the 203 CHCs. The model resulted in 6 clusters representing various levels of telemedicine adoption. A mixed methods approach streamlined these clusters into 4 final groups. Clinics that reported rapid adoption of telemedicine attributed this change to leadership prioritization of telemedicine, robust quality improvement processes (eg, using PDSA processes), and emphasis on training and technology support. Conclusions: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine adoption rates varied across clinics. Our study highlight that organizational factors contributed to the clinic’s ability to rapidly uptake and use telemedicine services throughout the pandemic. These approaches could inform future non-pandemic practice change and care delivery.