Evaluation of Telehealth Visit Attendance After Implementation of a Patient Navigator Program

Abstract

The dramatic rise in use of telehealth accelerated by COVID-19 created new telehealth-specific challenges as patients and clinicians adapted to technical aspects of video visits. To evaluate a telehealth patient navigator pilot program to assist patients in overcoming barriers to video visit access. This quality improvement study investigated visit attendance outcomes among those who received navigator outreach (intervention group) compared with those who did not (comparator group) at 2 US academic primary care clinics during a 12-week study period from April to July 2021. Eligible participants had a scheduled video visit without previous successful telehealth visits. The navigator contacted patients with next-day scheduled video appointments by phone to offer technical assistance and answer questions on accessing the appointment. The primary outcome was appointment attendance following the intervention. Return on investment (ROI) accounting for increased clinic adherence and costs of implementation was examined as a secondary outcome. A total 4066 patients had video appointments scheduled (2553 [62.8%] women; median [IQR] age: intervention, 55 years [38-66 years] vs comparator, 52 years [36-66 years]; P = .02). Patients who received the navigator intervention had significantly increased odds of attending their appointments (odds ratio, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.6-2.6) when compared with the comparator group, with an absolute increase of 9% in appointment attendance for the navigator group (949 of 1035 patients [91.6%] vs 2511 of 3031 patients [82.8%]). The program's ROI was $11 387 over the 12-week period. In this quality improvement study, we found that a telehealth navigator program was associated with significant improvement in video visit adherence with a net financial gain. Our findings have relevance for efforts to reduce barriers to telehealth-based health care and increase equity.