{"id":7394,"date":"2022-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icesontario.wpengine.com\/news-releases\/virtual-care-associated-with-significant-environmental-and-patient-cost-savings\/"},"modified":"2023-06-14T18:18:54","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T22:18:54","slug":"virtual-care-associated-with-significant-environmental-and-patient-cost-savings","status":"publish","type":"news_release","link":"https:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/fr\/news-releases\/virtual-care-associated-with-significant-environmental-and-patient-cost-savings\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual care associated with significant environmental and patient cost savings"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study by researchers at ICES<\/strong>, Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University finds that virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and patient travel-related expenses, such as gasoline, parking or public transit costs.<\/p>\n

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\nPrior to the pandemic, less than two per cent of patient visits with physicians took place virtually. The beginning of the pandemic (April-June 2020) triggered a rapid transition to virtual visits, which soared to 70 to 80 per cent, and then stabilized at 50 to 60 per cent of all physician visits.<\/p>\n

\nThis cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open<\/em> used healthcare administrative data from Ontario, Canada to identify all patients with at least one virtual care visit between March 2020 and December 2021.<\/p>\n

\n“Virtual care has become an important part of the healthcare system in Ontario, and in addition to improved patient convenience, it results in significant environmental and financial benefits for patients” says lead author Dr. Blayne Welk<\/a>, associate professor of surgery at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, urologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare London, associate scientist at Lawson, and adjunct scientist at ICES Western<\/a>. “The financial and environmental benefits of virtual care will likely continue beyond the pandemic and are particularly relevant for some patients who were frequent recipients of virtual care.”<\/p>\n

Findings show that for more than 10 million patients with at least one appointment during the study period (63 million visits in total), virtual care was associated with estimated savings of:<\/p>\n