Rapid Utilization of Telehealth in a Comprehensive Cancer Center as a Response to COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020 created unprecedented challenges in the provision of scheduled ambulatory cancer care. As a result, there has been a renewed focus on video consultations as a means to continue ambulatory care.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the change in video visit volume at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Comprehensive Cancer Center in response to COVID-19 and compare demographics/appointment data from January 1, 2020 and in the 11 weeks after transition to video visits.

METHODS: Patient demographics and appointment data (dates, visit types, and departments) were abstracted from the Electronic Health Record reporting database. Video visits were performed using a HIPAA-compliant video conferencing platform with a pre-existing workflow.

RESULTS: In 17 departments and divisions at the UCSF Cancer Center, 2,284 video visits were performed in the 11 weeks before COVID-19 changes with an average (SD) of 208 (75) per week and 12,946 video visits were performed in the 11 week post-COVID-19 period with an average (SD) of 1,177 (120) per week. The proportion of video visits increased from 7-18% to 54-72%, between the pre- and post-COVID-19 periods without any disparity based on race/ethnicity, primary language, or payor.

CONCLUSIONS: In a remarkably brief period of time, we rapidly scaled the utilization of telehealth in response to COVID-19 and maintained access to complex oncologic care at a time of social distancing.