Comparison of Demographic Characteristics and Barriers to Telehealth Use in 2014 for Family Physicians Responding to the January 2015 Robert Graham Center Survey,* by Telehealth Use
| Characteristic | Nonrespondents (n = 3443) | All Respondents (n = 1557) | Telehealth Users (n = 225) | Nonusers (n = 1332) | P Value† |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | .720 | ||||
| Female | 1477 (42.9) | 588 (41.0) | 90 (42.3) | 498 (40.8) | |
| Male | 1966 (57.1) | 969 (59.0) | 135 (57.7) | 834 (59.2) | |
| Type of medical degree | .120 | ||||
| Allopathic | 3109 (90.3) | 1410 (83.9) | 210 (88.7) | 1200 (83.3) | |
| Osteopathic | 334 (9.7) | 147 (16.1) | 15 (11.3) | 132 (16.7) | |
| Location of medical school | |||||
| United States | 2748 (79.8) | 1371 (79.7) | 202 (81.7) | 1169 (79.4) | .556 |
| International | 695 (20.2) | 186 (20.3) | 23 (18.3) | 163 (20.6) | |
| Practice location | |||||
| Urban | 2834 (82.3) | 1047 (83) | 112 (73.9) | 935 (87.8) | <.001 |
| Rural | 609 (17.7) | 510 (17) | 113 (26.1) | 397 (15.1) | |
| Years in practice | |||||
| 0–10 | 361 (28.1) | 62 (34.6) | 299 (27.2) | .060 | |
| 11–20 | 513 (33.9) | 64 (27.9) | 449 (34.7) | .070 | |
| 21–30 | 411 (23.7) | 64 (25.9) | 347 (23.4) | .450 | |
| ≥31 | 256 (14.3) | 33 (11.7) | 223 (14.7) | .230 | |
| Missing data | 16 (1.0) | 2 (0.5) | 14 (1.1) | ||
| Electronic health record use | .006 | ||||
| Currently a user | 1440 (93.0) | 218 (97.3) | 1222 (91.9) | ||
| Not current a user | 107 (6.5) | 5 (2.2) | 102 (7.6) | ||
| Missing data | 10 (0.5) | 2 (0.5) | 8 (0.5) | ||
| Type of care provided | |||||
| General primary care | 1330 (84.4) | 175 (76.4) | 1155 (85.5) | .004 | |
| Hospital/urgent/emergency care or other | 227 (14.3) | 46 (21.7) | 161 (13.3) | ||
| Missing data | 20 (1.3) | 4 (1.9) | 16 (1.2) | ||
| Family physicians at the practice site | |||||
| 1–5 | 1067 (68.6) | 138 (59.1) | 929 (70.0) | .005 | |
| ≥6 | 471 (30.2) | 85 (39.5) | 386 (28.8) | ||
| Missing data | 19 (1.2) | 2 (0.9) | 17 (1.2) | ||
| Practice ownership | <.001 | ||||
| Private | 572 (36.6) | 52 (21.9) | 520 (38.6) | ||
| Owned by a hospital or health system | 662 (41.1) | 95 (37.6) | 567 (41.6) | ||
| Integrated health system | 75 (5.6) | 19 (11.3) | 56 (4.8) | ||
| Other | 227 (15.4) | 58 (29.0) | 169 (13.5) | ||
| Missing data | 21 (1.3) | 1 (0.2) | 20 (1.5) | ||
| Barriers to using telehealth | |||||
| Any barrier from the list | 1382 (88.8) | 118 (83.6) | 1194 (89.6) | .008 | |
| Cost of equipment | 704 (45.4) | 78 (33.6) | 626 (47.0) | .001 | |
| Lack of training on how to use telehealth | 828 (53.7) | 91 (40.7) | 737 (55.5) | <.001 | |
| Reimbursement by insurers | 829 (53.3) | 102 (43.2) | 727 (54.7) | .004 | |
| Liability issues associated with telehealth | 595 (41.1) | 56 (26.6) | 539 (43.2) | <.001 | |
| Other | 325 (19.9) | 56 (22.2) | 269 (19.6) | .400 |
Data are n (%). Weighted percentages may not add up to 100 because of rounding and non–mutually exclusive categories.
↵* Respondents were from among a random sample of 5000 family physicians in direct patient care from the 2014 American Medical Association Physician Masterfile, with oversampling of rural family physicians at a rate of 2 to 1.
↵† P values were calculated using the χ2 test of significance between telehealth users and nonusers.