How can equitable video visit access be delivered in primary care? A qualitative study among rural primary care teams and patients

Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic sparked exponential growth in video visit use in primary care. The rapid shift to virtual from in-person care exacerbated digital access disparities across racial groups and rural populations. Moving forward, it is critical to understand when and how to incorporate video visits equitably into primary care. We sought to develop a novel clinical algorithm to guide primary care clinics on how and when to employ video visits as part of care delivery.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Design</jats:title><jats:p>Qualitative data collection: one team member conducted all patient semistructured interviews and led all focus groups with four other team members taking notes during groups.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Setting</jats:title><jats:p>3 rural primary care clinics in the USA.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Participants</jats:title><jats:p>24 black veterans living in rural areas and three primary care teams caring for black veterans living in rural areas.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Primary and secondary outcome measures</jats:title><jats:p>Findings from semistructured interviews with patients and focus groups with primary care teams.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Key issues around appropriate use of video visits for clinical teams included having adequate technical support, encouraging engagement during video visits and using video visits for appropriate clinical situations. Patients reported challenges with broadband access, inadequate equipment, concerns about the quality of video care, the importance of visit modality choice, and preferences for in-person care experience over virtual care. We developed an algorithm that requires input from both patients and their care team to assess fit for each clinical encounter.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Informed matching of patients and clinical situations to the right visit modality, along with individual patient technology support could reduce virtual access disparities.</jats:p></jats:sec>

Department

Description

Provenance

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062261

Publication Info

Goldstein, Karen M, Kathleen R Perry, Allison Lewinski, Conor Walsh, Megan E Shepherd-Banigan, Hayden B Bosworth, Hollis Weidenbacher, Dan V Blalock, et al. (2022). How can equitable video visit access be delivered in primary care? A qualitative study among rural primary care teams and patients. BMJ Open, 12(8). pp. e062261–e062261. 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062261 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/29378.

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Scholars@Duke

Goldstein

Karen M. Goldstein

Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Goldstein's research interests include women's health, cardiovascular risk reduction, evidence synthesis methodology and peer support.

Lewinski

Allison A. Lewinski

Assistant Research Professor in the School of Nursing

As a nurse scientist and health services researcher, with a joint appointment between the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) and the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VHA), I have acquired expertise in the areas of diabetes distress, qualitative research methods, and virtual care (e.g., telehealth, digital health) as a method of care delivery. My research focuses on the current and potential ability of virtual care interventions to reduce distress, improve self-management, increase access to evidence-based care delivery, and improve patient and population health outcomes. My collaborative and interdisciplinary research focuses on how patient-, provider-, and system-level factors influence virtual care use and outcomes. As evidence of its growing significance and impact at DUSON and the VHA, my work has been well funded, published in high-impact journals, presented at select conferences, and used to guide health system decision-making. I am a sought-after teacher and mentor because I connect my research interests to teaching students and mentees rigorous and systematic research approaches. I am frequently asked by local and national colleagues to provide guidance on distress, qualitative research methods, and virtual care approaches used in grants, projects, and manuscripts.  

My research contributions have focused on alleviating psychosocial distress, developing and implementing multi-level virtual care interventions, and enhancing qualitative methods. As a staff nurse, I witnessed the psychosocial distress of patients who experience challenges in obtaining care which led to my interest in diabetes distress. I aspire and work to improve health outcomes for individuals with chronic illness by developing equitable and sustainable multi-level virtual care interventions and assessing their implementation and adaptation. Virtual care describes any remote interaction between a patient and/or members of their care team. To achieve these goals, I use qualitative methods and implementation science approaches to enhance alignment between patient, modality, disease state, and social and environmental context; my collective assessments address for whom and what purposes, in what situations and contexts, when in a disease course or clinical activity, and in what specific ways such interventions are effective. My focus on the uptake and adoption of virtual care to address psychosocial distress considers interactions with patients, between patients and clinicians, and within health care systems and the larger population.

Walsh

Conor Walsh

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Shepherd-Banigan

Megan E Shepherd-Banigan

Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences

Dr. Megan Shepherd-Banigan designs research studies to improve the health, emotional well-being, and social functioning of adults with mental and physical disabilities. Her methods combine empirical approaches that address methodologically challenging research questions in health systems and policy research. Dr. Shepherd-Banigan uses large survey and administrative datasets to evaluate the impact of policies that support family members to care for adults with disabilities.  

Dr. Shepherd-Banigan won a VA Career Development Award from 2019-2024 and is studying ways to strengthen family support for veterans under-going traumatic stress treatment. She also leads a project that surveys family caregivers of Vietnam-era veterans who might be eligible for expanded support services under the VA Mission Act to evaluate program impacts. As co-investigator on an NIA-funded CARE IDEAS study (Terri Wetle, PI) , she is investigating end-of-life-care planning and well-being among dementia care dyads.  Finally, Dr. Shepherd-Banigan is leading a project in partnership with the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers to identify creative empirically-based approaches to support family caregivers. 



Blalock

Daniel Blalock

Medical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

I am a research scientist and Licensed Clinical Psychologist with a background in health services research, clinical psychology, and experimental psychology. My research interests include 1) the evaluation of current integrated behavioral health settings in health care systems to optimize future implementation efforts, 2) the development of novel integrated behavioral health strategies tailored to specific populations and healthcare system needs, 3) broad processes of behavior change and self-regulation, and 4) psychometric measurement of patient reported outcomes and research methods/statistics.

These interests have taken the form of specific research endeavors involving: a) large nonrandomized investigations of electronic health records data, b) development and evaluation of telehealth interventions to improve self-management of mental and physical health behaviors, and c) evaluation of patient-reported outcomes through telehealth modalities and in primary care, specialty care, and higher level of care settings.

To date, the content domains of most of my research have involved substance use (specifically alcohol, opioids, and tobacco), health behaviors (specifically medication adherence), mental health (specifically anxiety, depression, PTSD, and eating disorders), and health services utilization.

Zullig

Leah L Zullig

Professor in Population Health Sciences

Leah L. Zullig, PhD, MPH is a health services researcher and an implementation scientist. She is a Professor in the Duke Department of Population Health Sciences and an investigator with the Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation (ADAPT) at the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Dr. Zullig leads INTERACT, the Implementation Science Research Collaborative, and is co-leader of Duke Cancer Institute's cancer prevention and control program.

Dr. Zullig’s overarching research interests address three domains: improving cancer care delivery and quality; promoting cancer survivorship and chronic disease management; and improving medication adherence. Throughout these three area of foci Dr. Zullig uses an implementation science lens with the goal of providing equitable care for all by implementing evidence-based practices in a variety of health care environments. She has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications. 

Dr. Zullig completed her BS in Health Promotion, her MPH in Public Health Administration, and her PhD in Health Policy.

Areas of expertise: Implementation Science, Health Measurement, Health Policy, Health Behavior, Telehealth, and Health Services Research


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