Pre-pandemic, telehealth was much more of a novelty than a necessity in the healthcare industry. The idea of contacting your doctor remotely for care was promising, but there were major hurdles — obstacles that would require time, effort, and ingenuity to overcome.

Then, COVID-19 created a need for safe, distant medical care and advice. And necessity, like always, is the mother of invention (or in this case, adoption). Suddenly, millions of patients who were once walk-ins became logins, and soon, all that was necessary to get a quality checkup was a stable Wi-Fi connection.

SYKES’ March 2020 telehealth survey revealed new insights on what Americans thought about the rise of virtual visits to the doctor and the concept of telehealth in general. At that point, telehealth was still a radical idea, and phrases like “new normal” had yet to overstay their welcome. Research outlined in the SYKES Fall 2020 telehealth apps report made it clear that all kinds of new users had already begun scheduling consultations in cyberspace due to COVID-19.

But now, with vaccines being administered all over the world, will this mean a decline in socially distanced telehealth services too? Or will patients still want access to virtual doctor visits even after distance is no longer a factor?

To find out, we asked 2,000 Americans in March 2021 how their opinions on telehealth have changed over the past year, what they’ve experienced, and what they think should stick around even after vaccines are widely available.

For full story: https://www.sykes.com/resources/reports/how-americans-feel-about-telehealth-now/