Objective: To compare diagnostic accuracy between primary care E-Visit and face-to-face (F2F) en-counters for low-acuity illnesses.
Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional retrospective analysis of electronic health records in a large not-for-profit integrated delivery system included patients covered by the health care system’s employee health plan with an established affiliated physician-patient relationship and an F2F encounter in the past 12 months who had an E-Visit (n=490) or an F2F (n=2201) primary care encounter for a low-acuity illness from July 1, 2015, through December 22, 2016. Patients with a related follow-up visit within 10 days resulting in a revised diagnosis, as determined by 2 physician reviewers, were compared (1) including only the first encounter for each patient and (2) including all encounters more than 10 days apart for included patients.
Conclusion: Diagnostic accuracy for low-acuity illnesses in this population was equivalent between E-Visit and F2F encounters.
490
Virtual visits participants
2,201
In-person visit participants
9
Clinical protocols examined
17
Month study
