Introduction: Telehealth utilization has been steadily increasing for the past two decades and has been recognized for its ability to access rural and underserved populations. The advent of COVID-19 in March 2020 limited the feasibility of in-person healthcare visits which in turn increased telehealth demand and use. However, the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the telehealth sector of the healthcare industry, and particularly on pediatric healthcare volume demand and subsequent expansion, are yet to be determined.Objective and Methods: To understand the impact of COVID-19 on telehealth utilization, volume demand, and expansion in one large pediatric healthcare system serving greater Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, data on telehealth clinic visits by month, pre-COVID and post/current-COVID were compared. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design analysis compared telehealth visit counts from 54 ambulatory pediatric health specialties. Pre-post new patient counts were also analyzed via chi square.Results: Total telehealth visit counts significantly increased between March–October 2019 (2,033 visits) compared to March-October 2020 (54,276 visits). Mean monthly telehealth visits increased by 6,530 visits, or 2,569.75% over the same time period (p < 0.0001). In October 2020, total telehealth visits were still 1,194.78% above 2019 levels (345 visits in 2019 vs. 4467 visits in 2020).Discussion: Results here show a substantial volume increase in telehealth-delivered pediatric healthcare and resource utilization as a response to COVID-19. This provides a template for permanent adoption of pediatric telehealth delivery post pandemic. Further investigation is needed to determine impacts upon resource allocation, processes, and general models and standard of care to assist facilities and programs to better address the needs of the pediatric populations they serve in the post-COVID era.
BACKGROUND The COVID‐19 pandemic presents unique opportunities for preexisting school telemedicine programs to reach pediatric populations that might otherwise experience a lapse in health care services. METHODS A retrospective analysis of one of the largest school‐based telemedicine programs in the country, based in the Dallas‐Fort Worth (DFW), Texas was conducted that included 7021 pediatric patients who engaged in telehealth visits from 2014 to 2019. RESULTS Asthma or other respiratory disease was the primary diagnosis (28.4%), followed by injury or trauma (18.4%), digestive disorders (6.9%), and ear/eye/skin disease (6.9%). More participants were from the North (34.4%) and West (33.2%) ISD compared to the South (20.6%) and East (11.7%) schools. Likewise, the majority of COVID‐19 cases were in the North (61.8%) and West (31.6%) DFW regions, leading to 989 (59.9%) and 551 (33.4%) deaths, respectively. CONCLUSIONS School‐based telehealth programs have the potential to reach large pediatric populations most in need of health care due to COVID‐19‐related lapses in services, and to address COVID‐19‐related health issues as schools reopen. In the future, utilization could be expanded to contact tracing, testing, and screening for COVID‐19.
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