A descriptive analysis of an on-demand telehealth approach for remote COVID-19 patient screening

Introduction: COVID-19 requires methods for screening patients that adhere to physical distancing and other Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. There is little data on the use of on-demand telehealth to meet this need. Methods: The functional performance of on-demand telehealth as a COVID-19 remote patient screening approach was conducted by analysing 9270 patient requests. Results: Most on-demand telehealth requests (5712 of 9270 total requests; 61.6%) had a visit reason that was likely COVID-19 related. Of these, 79.1% (4518 of 5712) resulted in a completed encounter and 20.9% (1194 of 5712) resulted in left without being seen. Of the 4518 completed encounters, 19.1% were referred to an urgent care centre, emergency department or COVID-19 testing centre. The average completed encounter wait time was 26.5 min and the mean visit length was 8.8 min. For patients that completed an encounter 42.8% (1935 of 4518) stated they would have sought in-person care and 9.1% stated they would have done nothing if on-demand telehealth was unavailable. Discussion: On-demand telehealth can serve as a low-barrier approach to screen patients for COVID-19. This approach can prevent patients from visiting healthcare facilities, which reduces physical contact and reduces healthcare worker use of personal protective equipment.