Patient interest in and barriers to telemedicine video visits in a multilingual urban safety-net system
Elaine C. Khoong, Blythe Butler, Omar Mesina, George Su, Triveni DeFries, Malini A. Nijagal, Courtney R. Lyles
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine interest in and barriers to video visits in safety-net patients with diverse age, racial/ethnic, or linguistic background. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We surveyed patients in an urban safety-net system to assess: interest in video visits; ability to successfully complete test video visits; and barriers to successful completion of test video visits. RESULTS: Among 202 participants, of which 177 (87.6%) were persons of color and 113 (55.9%) preferred non-English languages, 132 (65.3%) were interested in and 109 (54.0%) successfully completed a test video visit. Younger age, non-English preference, and prior smartphone application use were associated with interest. Over half (n = 112) reported barriers to video visits; Internet/data access was the most common barrier (n = 50, 24.8%). CONCLUSION: Safety-net patients are interested in video visits and able to successfully complete test visits. Internet or mobile data access is a common barrier in even urban safety-net settings and may impact equitable telemedicine access.