Telehealth companies are increasingly positioning themselves as part of preventive and routine patient care, moving beyond their initial on-demand urgent care models and into businesses that dovetail with emerging patient preferences.
As telehealth visits skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it exposed patients to a new form of healthcare: video visits with their own doctor. For years, surveys have suggested patients would be more willing to use telehealth services if they could connect with a provider they already knew, rather than one they're not familiar with.
Dr. Todd Czartoski, chief medical technology officer at Renton, Wash.-based Providence, said now that patients and providers have become comfortable with telehealth, he expects to see more healthcare organizations offering patients virtual visits with their own clinicians. Telehealth won't be separate from in-person care, but another option for maintaining that same patient-physician relationship.
Providence currently offers telehealth visits with its clinicians for scheduled appointments and on-demand urgent care.
"You're going to see is a lot more healthcare organizations maturing their own provider networks," Czartoski said.
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