Study: Telehealth Achieves Nearly 90% Customer Satisfaction

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TigerConnect, healthcare's most widely adopted communication platform, today released the first comprehensive telemedicine survey of patients and healthcare providers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey reveals overwhelming support for the future of telehealth.

COVID-19 has forever changed perspectives on telehealth, with both patients and providers embracing the technology. TigerConnect found that 88% of providers who currently use telehealth have seen an increase in the use of telehealth as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – with 71% reporting a great increase. And while COVID-19 has sparked a moment, providers believe telehealth is here to stay – with more than two-thirds (71%) expecting the use of telehealth to increase or remain the same after the pandemic.

On the patient side, a whopping 87% of patients who tried telehealth are satisfied with the experience. More than 70% of patients now say it's important for providers to offer a telehealth option, with less than 40% of respondents still preferring in-person visits over a telehealth consult. Moreover, patients who try telehealth want more of it; those who've used telehealth in the last year were more than twice as likely to have a strong preference for telehealth and video consultations over in-office visits. Incredibly, nearly half of the patients who tried telehealth couldn't find a single thing to dislike about their experience.

Additional key findings include:

Telehealth is a bipartisan issue

• Both Democrats (77%) and Republicans (66%) agree it is important for their health provider to offer telehealth services.
• Access remains an issue. Nearly twice as many urban patients have used telehealth (53%) compared to rural patients (31%), possibly due to limitations around broadband reliability and cellular reception.

Convenience and safety are key drivers

• Convenience was widely cited as a benefit of telehealth. Half of respondents (50%) say telehealth is a convenient alternative to office visits, while 36% say it allows them to keep appointments that might otherwise be canceled. One in three (34%) say it makes it easier to schedule health check-ins.
• More than half (52%) of patients confirm that telehealth provides a safe alternative to office visits.

Room for refinement

• Boomers (55+) and Gen Z (under 24) were the groups least satisfied with their telehealth experience. Boomers cited excessive complexity, while Gen Z referenced a dearth of features.
• The great portal divide rages on. Just 23% of patients said portals were a preferred method for communicating with healthcare providers, while 44% of providers indicated that portals were one of the most effective methods for communicating with patients.

Telehealth is a fragmented market – for now

• Providers named more than 140 different telehealth solutions they've deployed, with 14% using multiple solutions.
• Two out of three (65%) providers are satisfied with their existing solution.

"The people have spoken: telehealth is here to stay," said TigerConnect CEO Brad Brooks. "The overnight move to telehealth is one of the fastest cultural shifts in healthcare in decades, and this research reveals it has already transformed the habits of millions of Americans who can now access great healthcare as easily as they can catch a ride to the airport. It's up to our industry to seize this moment and ensure that it's as easy as possible for anyone to access or administer world-class healthcare anywhere and anytime to improve health outcomes for all Americans."

About the Survey
The consumer portion of the survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of TigerConnect from July 23-27, 2020 among 2,039 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact [email protected].

TigerConnect also surveyed more than 500 healthcare clinicians across the United States in June and July of 2020.

About TigerConnect, Inc.
TigerConnect is healthcare's most widely adopted communication platform – uniquely modernizing care collaboration among doctors, nurses, care teams and patients. TigerConnect is the only solution that combines a consumer-like user experience for both clinical and patient communication with serious security, privacy and clinical workflow requirements that today's healthcare organizations demand. TigerConnect accelerates productivity, reduces costs and improves patient outcomes.

Trusted by more than 6,500 healthcare organizations, TigerConnect maintains 99.99% verifiable uptime and processes more than 10 million messages each day. To learn more, visit tigerconnect.com.

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SOURCE TigerConnect