Healthcare Quarterly

Healthcare Quarterly 26(3) October 2023 : 31-36.doi:10.12927/hcq.2023.27217
Evaluating Virtual Care

Was Virtual Care as Safe as In-Person Care? Analyzing Patient Outcomes at Seven and Thirty Days in Ontario during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Shawn Mondoux, Frank Battaglia, Anastasia Gayowsky, Natasha Clayton, Caillin Langmann, Paul Miller, Alim Pardhan, Julie Mathews, Alex Drossos and Keerat Grewal

Abstract

In 2020, almost overnight, the paradigm for healthcare interactions changed in Ontario. To limit person-to-person transmission of COVID-19, the norm of in-person interactions shifted to virtual care. While this shift was part of broader public health measures and an acknowledgment of patient and societal concerns, it also represented a change in care modalities that had the potential to affect the quality of care provided, as well as short- and long-term patient outcomes. While public policy decisions were being made to moderate the use of virtual care at the end of the declared pandemic, a thorough analysis of short-term patient outcomes was needed to quantify the impact of virtual care on the population of Ontario.

 

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