RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Redesigning primary care
JF Canadian Family Physician
JO Can Fam Physician
FD The College of Family Physicians of Canada
SP e78
OP e85
DO 10.46747/cfp.6904e78
VO 69
IS 4
A1 Jamie K. Fujioka
A1 Megan Nguyen
A1 Michelle Phung
A1 Onil Bhattacharyya
A1 Leah Kelley
A1 Vess Stamenova
A1 Nike Onabajo
A1 Michael Kidd
A1 Laura Desveaux
A1 Ivy Wong
A1 R. Sacha Bhatia
A1 Payal Agarwal
YR 2023
UL http://www.cfp.ca/content/69/4/e78.abstract
AB Objective To explore primary care physician (PCP) perspectives on the clinical utility of virtual visits.Design Qualitative design involving semistructured interviews.Setting Primary care practices within 5 regions in southern Ontario.Participants Primary care physicians representing different practice sizes and remuneration models.METHODS Interviews were conducted with PCPs who were involved in a large-scale pilot implementation of virtual visits (patient-provider asynchronous messaging, or synchronous audio or video communication). The first phase involved a convenience sample of users in the first 2 regions where the pilot was initiated; after implementation in all 5 regions, purposive sampling was used to ensure diversity within the sample (eg, physicians representing different use frequencies of virtual visits, regions, and remuneration models). Interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed. An inductive thematic analysis was used to identify prominent themes and subthemes.Main findings Twenty-six physicians were interviewed. Fifteen were recruited using convenience sampling and 11 through purposive sampling. Four themes regarding the clinical utility of virtual visits were identified: virtual visits can effectively resolve many patient concerns, with some variation in PCP comfort using virtual visits for specific conditions; virtual visits are beneficial for a range of patients but some patients might overuse or inappropriately use them; PCPs prefer to use asynchronous messaging (eg, text or online messaging) because of its convenience and flexibility; and virtual visits can provide value at the patient, provider, and health system levels.Conclusion While participants believed that virtual visits can be appropriately used to resolve a variety of clinical concerns, they found in practice that virtual visits are fundamentally different from face-to-face encounters. Professional guidelines on appropriate use cases should be established to develop a standard framework for virtual care.