Patients who had telehealth visits with someone other than their usual primary care provider were 66% more likely to visit the emergency department (ED) within seven days compared with patients who saw their regular primary care provider via telehealth, according to a study published Dec. 27, 2023, in JAMA Network Open. In the study of more than five million telehealth visits in Ontario, Canada, researchers matched 942,983 patient pairs who saw either their own regular provider or an outside provider. The study’s findings suggest that telehealth services in the context of primary care may be most effective when they occur within an existing clinical relationship.
