7 stats that show how Americans used telehealth in 2021

Here are seven notable findings about Americans' telehealth use, pulled from telehealth studies Becker's has covered in 2021.

1. In April, 64 percent of U.S. broadband households reported using a telehealth service in the previous 12 months, according to a Parks Associates report. Of those households, 34 percent reported they had to use telehealth as the only option to see their provider. More than one-fourth said potential exposure to COVID-19 drove them to use telehealth. Twenty-eight percent cited convenience.
   
   
2. Thirty-five percent of the public would consider replacing their primary care providers with qualified physicians on demand via telehealth, according to a study conducted by The Harris Poll and released in April.
   
   
3. Forty-three percent of adults want to continue to use telehealth services after the pandemic, and 34 percent would prefer telehealth to an in-person office visit, according to a survey conducted by the American Psychiatric Association and released in May.
   
   
4. Convenience and infection control are the top reasons patients opt for telehealth appointments, while the lack of human interaction and connectivity issues are the aspects they find most challenging, according to a Deloitte report released in June.
   
   
5. Patient satisfaction from virtual visits with their healthcare providers appears to be comparable to traditional in-person visits, according to a study conducted by Cleveland Clinic researchers and released in June. Nearly 82 percent of patients said their virtual visit was as good as an in-person visit, 91 percent said their virtual visit made it easy to get the care they needed and 93 percent found the interface was easy to use.
   
   
6. More than one-quarter (28 percent) of parents don't opt into telehealth services for their children because their provider has never offered it to them, according to an analysis from Miami-based Nemours Children's Health System and Amwell that was released in July.
   
   
7. Forty percent of patients say they interact with their healthcare providers more because of telehealth, according to GoodRx research released in November.