COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition Wants to Make Telehealth Better During Pandemic

To better understand what you need from telehealth, The Mighty has partnered with the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition to get your opinion. The COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition was formed in mid-March 2020 to help find solutions and strategies to minimize the harm of COVID-19 by protecting health care workers and supporting communities.

In its continued research, the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition relies on data from real people, like you, to capture what real patients need. We’re inviting members of The Mighty community to take a patient survey from the Mayo Clinic and MITRE Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, to help the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition continue to find ways to improve telehealth. 

The Frontlines: Since the COVID-19 pandemic started to spread across the United States, the use of telehealth has increased in all states. According to the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition, the increase of telehealth usage varies state-by-state.

• The number of telehealth claims increased from around 550,000 claims in February 2020 to over 12.5 million claims in April 2020 nationally.
• A previous survey from the Coalition found that a majority of doctors believe telehealth has allowed them to provide quality care to patients during the pandemic.
• A University of Pennsylvania study found that low-income people, second language learners and people of color are less likely to access telehealth.
• According to a Mighty survey, 32% of our community said a better telehealth experience (such as shorter wait times or easier-to-use technology) would improve their access to care. 

A Mighty Voice: Contributor Elaine Wiley wrote about a positive change she experienced during the shift to telemedicine: Her relationship with her health care team improved. “I definitely have been more vulnerable with them by allowing them into my home and my real life. Vulnerability is difficult, but it helps my health care provider to treat the real me — cat interruptions, unfolded clothes piles and all.” You can submit your first-person story, too.

Other Things to Know: Your response to the Coalition’s survey will help inform opportunities to improve telehealth across the health care community, provide insights to federal and state policymakers, and identify gaps in current research. Here are some things you should know if you’d like to support the research by taking the survey:

• This survey is open to U.S. residents who are over the age of 18.
• It will take about 10-15 minutes.
• You will not be identified using any of the information you provide, and all of your answers will remain anonymous.

How to Take the Survey: To take the COVID-19 Telehealth Impact Patient Survey please click the link here. Don’t forget to press submit when you get to the end of the survey so we make sure your answers are counted!