Working Framework for Appropriate Use of Virtual Care in Primary Care

Abstract

Background: Given the absence of guidelines for use of virtual visits for primary care delivery, a framework is needed to inform the most appropriate use of virtual visits.

Methods: We conducted in-depth, structured interviews of 18 patients, primary care clinicians, and other select informants. They were asked to discuss optimal, acceptable, and suboptimal uses of telemedicine for delivering care relative to in-person care delivery. The concepts expressed informed our development of a framework about appropriate use of virtual visits.

Results: The 103 concepts supported 5 main themes that emerged as a framework: clinical situations which are optimal for in-person care; situations optimal for virtual visits; situations that might be exchangeable between sites; contextual factors favoring in-person care; and contextual factors favoring virtual visits.

Conclusions: After further validation, we expect that this framework may guide future research and practice: it may be valuable for clinical practice redesign, for designing evaluations of the outcomes of virtual visits, for outcomes research, for patient education, for triage, and possibly for reimbursement considerations.