Beyond the Clinic Family Medicine on a Mission Part 1: How Air Force Physicians Achieve Humanitarian Goals Read Family Medicine on a Mission Part 1: How Air Force Physicians Achieve Humanitarian Goals
Phoenix Newsletter - March 2025 President’s Message: ABFM’s Unwavering Commitment to Diplomates and the Specialty Read President’s Message: ABFM’s Unwavering Commitment to Diplomates and the Specialty
Home Research Research Library The Disproportionate Impact of Primary Care Disruption and Telehealth Utilization During COVID-19 The Disproportionate Impact of Primary Care Disruption and Telehealth Utilization During COVID-19 2024 Author(s) Morgan, Zachary J, Bazemore, Andrew W, Peterson, Lars E, Phillips, Robert L, and Dai, Mingliang Topic(s) Role of Primary Care Keyword(s) Practice Organization / Ownership, and Prime Volume Annals of Family Medicine Source Annals of Family Medicine PURPOSE The COVID-19 pandemic not only exacerbated existing disparities in health care in general but likely worsened disparities in access to primary care. Our objective was to quantify the nationwide decrease in primary care visits and increase in telehealth utilization during the pandemic and explore whether certain groups of patients were disproportionately affected. METHODS We used a geographically diverse primary care electronic health record data set to examine the following 3 outcomes: (1) change in total visit volume, (2) change in in-person visit volume, and (3) the telehealth conversion ratio defined as the number of pandemic telehealth visits divided by the total number of prepandemic visits. We assessed whether these outcomes were associated with patient characteristics including age, gender, race, ethnicity, comorbidities, rurality, and area-level social deprivation. RESULTS Our primary sample included 1,652,871 patients from 408 practices. During the pandemic we observed decreases of 7% and 17% in total and in-person visit volume and a 10% telehealth conversion ratio. The greatest decreases in visit volume were observed among pediatric patients (−24%), Asian patients (−11%), and those with more comorbidities (−9%). Telehealth usage was greatest among Hispanic or Latino patients (17%) and those living in urban areas (12%). CONCLUSIONS Decreases in primary care visit volume were partially offset by increasing telehealth use for all patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the magnitude of these changes varied significantly across all patient characteristics. These variations have implications not only for the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also for planners seeking to ready the primary care delivery system for any future systematic disruptions. Read More ABFM Research Read all 2021 Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Report From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Go to Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Report From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2021 Life in Private Practice Go to Life in Private Practice 2020 Using Machine Learning to Predict Primary Care and Advance Workforce Research Go to Using Machine Learning to Predict Primary Care and Advance Workforce Research 2020 Team Configurations, Efficiency, and Family Physician Burnout Go to Team Configurations, Efficiency, and Family Physician Burnout
Author(s) Morgan, Zachary J, Bazemore, Andrew W, Peterson, Lars E, Phillips, Robert L, and Dai, Mingliang Topic(s) Role of Primary Care Keyword(s) Practice Organization / Ownership, and Prime Volume Annals of Family Medicine Source Annals of Family Medicine
ABFM Research Read all 2021 Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Report From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Go to Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Report From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2021 Life in Private Practice Go to Life in Private Practice 2020 Using Machine Learning to Predict Primary Care and Advance Workforce Research Go to Using Machine Learning to Predict Primary Care and Advance Workforce Research 2020 Team Configurations, Efficiency, and Family Physician Burnout Go to Team Configurations, Efficiency, and Family Physician Burnout
2021 Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Report From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Go to Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Report From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
2020 Using Machine Learning to Predict Primary Care and Advance Workforce Research Go to Using Machine Learning to Predict Primary Care and Advance Workforce Research
2020 Team Configurations, Efficiency, and Family Physician Burnout Go to Team Configurations, Efficiency, and Family Physician Burnout