The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future of telehealth in primary care

Phyllis Ann Solari-Twadell; Margaret Flinter; Betty Rambur; Susan Renda; Stephanie Witwer; Patricia Vanhook; Lusine Poghosyan

doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2021.09.004

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the future of telehealth in primary care

Nurs Outlook. 2022 Mar-Apr;70(2):315-322. doi: 10.1016/j.outlook.2021.09.004. Epub 2021 Sep 24.

Authors

Phyllis Ann Solari-Twadell¹, Margaret Flinter², Betty Rambur³, Susan Renda⁴, Stephanie Witwer⁵, Patricia Vanhook⁶, Lusine Poghosyan⁷

Affiliations

¹ Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Electronic address: psolari@luc.edu.
² Community Health Center, Inc, Middleton, Connecticut.
³ University of Rhode Island, North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
⁴ John Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, Maryland.
⁵ Mayo Clinic-Rochester, Rochester, Minnesota.
⁶ East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee.
⁷ Columbia University School of Nursing, New York, New York.

Abstract

This policy paper reviews the history, use and significance of telehealth in primary care. The emergence of telehealth as a primary strategy to continue to deliver value based, timely primary care during COVID-19 is discussed with recommendations for future applications, payment and preparation of providers to continue to provide quality care of clients in the future using telehealth.

Keywords: Health policy; Nursing; Primary care; Telehealth.

Publication types

Practice Guideline
Review

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Humans
Pandemics
Primary Health Care
SARS-CoV-2
Telemedicine*