Open-Ended Responses on Clinician Motivations from Safety-Net Clinicians, October 2020–November 2021
| Key Finding | Supporting Quotes |
|---|---|
| Limited Physical Exams | I avoid telehealth due to difficulties with connection, and, more importantly, inability to have a physical exam, check blood pressure, check vital signs. It's like I'm expected to treat patients blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back! (November 2021) |
| Being able to offer Telehealth for primary care has been wonderful and I hope it will never go away! We must fund this. However, we are learning its limitations also. Otherwise I have also seen how many people miss coming in to see us in person, how much the human connection has mattered to so many of our patients, who miss seeing us and being touched by us, both figuratively and literally. And the moments of joy vaccinating our staff and our patients - wow that has been wonderful! (March 2021) | |
| Limitations by Visit Type | I'm concerned that telehealth drives unnecessary visits—ie first a telehealth that requires an in person visit, that really could have been dealt with by a single in person visit. (November 2021) |
| I have done multiple VV that are terrible and I ask for an in person visit and find the person is extremely ill, unstable or suffering a mental health crisis. I think there is a place for virtual visits…extremely helpful for super specialists to see people in rural America and support rural providers but lacking for primary care where we do a lot of social work and mental health care. (November 2021) | |
| Positive Experiences | Telehealth! Listening and talking are often sufficiently therapeutic without the need for face-to-face contact. We've been doing stuff for years that has not served our patients well. How can we go back? (March 2021) |
| As one tool in our tool bag, telehealth should be here to stay. Never go back to the bad old way. (November 2020) |