Evaluation of Telehealth Visit Attendance After Implementation of a Patient Navigator Program

IMPORTANCE: The dramatic rise in use of telehealth accelerated by COVID-19 created new telehealth-specific challenges as patients and clinicians adapted to technical aspects of video visits. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a telehealth patient navigator pilot program to assist patients in overcoming barriers to video visit access. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This quality improvement study investigated visit attendance outcomes among those who received navigator outreach (intervention group) compared with those who did not (comparator group) at 2 US academic primary care clinics during a 12-week study period from April to July 2021. Eligible participants had a scheduled video visit without previous successful telehealth visits. INTERVENTIONS: The navigator contacted patients with next-day scheduled video appointments by phone to offer technical assistance and answer questions on accessing the appointment. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was appointment attendance following the intervention. Return on investment (ROI) accounting for increased clinic adherence and costs of implementation was examined as a secondary outcome. RESULTS: A total 4066 patients had video appointments scheduled (2553 [62.8%] women; median [IQR] age: intervention, 55 years [38-66 years] vs comparator, 52 years [36-66 years]; P = .02). Patients who received the navigator intervention had significantly increased odds of attending their appointments (odds ratio, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.6-2.6) when compared with the comparator group, with an absolute increase of 9% in appointment attendance for the navigator group (949 of 1035 patients [91.6%] vs 2511 of 3031 patients [82.8%]). The program’s ROI was $11 387 over the 12-week period. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this quality improvement study, we found that a telehealth navigator program was associated with significant improvement in video visit adherence with a net financial gain. Our findings have relevance for efforts to reduce barriers to telehealth-based health care and increase equity.