Psychiatrists, put the couch on the curb. Virtual appointments are here to stay
Among those who have switched to virtual mental health appointments, more than half would stick with the new format post-pandemic.
Patient acceptance of, and even preference for, virtual psychiatry treatment during COVID has further established that the future of telemedicine is now. While some psychiatrists continue to argue that the benefits of in-person therapy outweigh those of virtual treatment, patients are saying, “We want virtual treatment.”
This trend was supported by a recent study of Michigan psychiatric patients reported in the digital health publication JMIR. The study, based on responses from 244 patients receiving treatment during COVID, reported that the vast majority (96%) were fine with video or telephone sessions. And 54% said they would prefer to continue with virtual sessions once in-person sessions could be safely conducted.
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A bit of background: A University of Michigan health clinic psychiatrist, Jennifer Severe, had been testing ways to move more patients to online treatment when the virus exploded. Suddenly, clinic patients were forced to make a choice: Get treatment via video or telephone, or postpone care until in-person sessions were again safe.
Severe followed patient choices and conducted the survey after they had been living their choices for nine months. Here’s what she found:
- More than nine in 10 opted to continue treatment virtually.
- More than 8 in 10 (86%) chose to continue with video sessions.
- Only 3% chose to postpone their treatment.
- The remaining patients wanted to phone chat with their doctors.
- Older patients tended to populate the latter two choices.
- No significant trends were noted by gender or race.
- Video patients were most likely to want to continue treatment virtually when in-person sessions were restored.
- More than half of those patients said they would stick with the video counseling sessions.
Reasons for embracing virtual treatment (apart from the initial impetus to do so) had a common factor: an appreciation of the convenience of the online session. Patients did not believe the virtual meetings with their doctors were in any way inferior to in-person meetings. In fact, they suggested adherence to a treatment schedule, and the ability to schedule an emergency session more easily, were benefits to the new treatment model.
“Among the 235 patients who elected to receive psychiatric care virtually (either video or telephone visits), 93.6% reported that virtual visits met or exceeded expectations … with many participants indicating initial hesitation with virtual visits that were ultimately resolved with experience.”
Researchers said that advances in technology, patient comfort with technology, and an established payment strategy that was in place, all led to the success of moving patients off the couch and onto the computer (or phone).
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