Providers’ understanding of patient experiences and disparities navigating telehealth services amid the COVID-19 pandemic

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a share of health care delivery shifted from in-person to telehealth. This transition was not experienced equally among all patients, providers, and health systems. This research aims to document the facilitators and barriers to patient telehealth adoption from the provider perspective in five primary care sites of an integrated multi-specialty medical group in Los Angeles County. To do so, we conducted n = 39 semi-structured interviews with health care providers, administrators, and staff and analyzed the transcripts through concept coding following the social determinants of health framework. Results show that health care providers identify patient’s age, race/ethnicity, and technological experience as primary facilitators to patient adoption of telehealth. The study’s findings contribute to understanding patient, provider and health system factors that influence successful telehealth navigation within the primary care setting. Insights about barriers and facilitators to equitable telehealth deployment can illuminate steps that health care systems can take to ensure that patients and providers feel equipped to use telehealth with ease as we continue to use remote health care post-pandemic.