Telehealth Patient Satisfaction Surges During Pandemic but Barriers to Access Persist

Telehealth is one of the top health sectors yielding a high patient satisfaction score, but just about half of patients are still citing some barriers to virtual care access according to the J.D. Power 2020 US Telehealth Satisfaction Study. Although telehealth has been around for years, it has seen its biggest use case during the COVID-19 pandemic. As medical providers had to close their doors to non-urgent and non-emergency care access, they turned to telehealth to make ends meet. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been a moment of truth for telehealth, and, by most accounts, the technology is rising to the challenge and delivering a high degree of satisfaction among those who use it,” said James Beem, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “However, even though the public awareness with Telehealth is higher due to the influence of COVID-19, the barriers for the consumer to engage with the technology has been a consistent theme in our research.”

Other key findings of the 2020 study include:

• Great patient experience
• Barriers to access persist
• At-risk patients have lower levels of satisfaction
• Safety becomes a top driver of utilization