Some urgent care insiders view telemedicine as a natural fit for our industry—an opportunity to give patients even more convenient access to competent healthcare providers, thereby increasing engagement and resulting in more care for more patients. Others just don’t see how it would be applicable, or fear that remote visits could result in overprescribing (especially for antibiotics and pain medications).
Judging from data just released through the Urgent Care Associations 2021 Summer Benchmarking Report, widespread acceptance of telemedicine may still be years off. The doubters still outnumber the proponents by a two-to-one margin; only 33.3% of respondents said telemedicine will “play a significant part” of their strategy in 2021-22, while 66.6% said it will not. Their reasons, as detailed in the graph below, are worth noting.
