The COVID-19 pandemic showed that telehealth can safely and confidently be used by a large health system to treat heart failure (HF) patients, according to new data published in JACC: Heart Failure.
“HF is a particularly important disease for which to examine the impact of telehealth, as it is a chronic condition necessitating continual assessment of symptoms, health status, and medication adjustment,” wrote lead author Yasser Sammour, MD, a cardiology resident at the University of Missouri Kansas City, and colleagues. “Moreover, patients with HF are a particularly vulnerable population for complications related to COVID-19 infection, including critical illness and mortality.”
Sammour et al. examined the experience of a large U.S. system serving patients in both Kansas and Missouri. In March 2020, the system—which includes 12 hospitals, 16 emergency departments (EDs) and 16 cardiology clinics—adapted a telehealth model for outpatient care due to the pandemic.
More than 8,000 unique HF patients were treated at that time, and telehealth was used in 88.5% of all clinic visits. While 70% of telehealth visits were over the phone, the other 30% were done over video.
Overall, the group found, the health system actually saw slightly more outpatients in 2020 than 2018 or 2019. Propensity matching was then used to create 4,541 matched pairs, allowing the authors to more accurate compare outcomes from 2020 with those from 2018/2019. These comparisons revealed that mortality rates were similar for telehealth visits and in-person visits after both 30 days and 90 days. Also, there was no significant change in the number of hospital admissions, the lengths of stay for hospital admissions or the need to send patients to the ICU. The number of patients seen by physicians as opposed to advanced practice providers was also unchanged.
“Among outpatients with a history of HF, telehealth visits were not associated with an increase in subsequent ED visits, hospital admissions, intensive care use, or all-cause mortality at either 30 or 90 days,” the authors wrote. “Collectively, these data suggest that telehealth visits could be safely implemented.”
The full study can be read here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.