Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.)

School

Management

Advisor

Rabeh Hijazi

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic's arrival in the United States restricted access and use of telemedicine in primary care providers (PCPs) settings. Addressing this issue is crucial since telemedicine is a confirmed method of encouraging patients and PCPs to promote quality health care. This quantitative study investigated the association between age, gender, and race, and PCPs offering telemedicine and U.S. household adults using telemedicine during COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The Donabedian framework, which considers aspects of an organization's structure, process, and outcome, served as the study's foundation, incorporating age, race, and gender as independent variables, and PCPs and US adults as dependent variables. Utilizing a sample size of 786 US household adults from the Research and Development Survey (RANDS), a univariate and multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that women were more likely to use telemedicine and reported that their PCPs provided it. The study also found that adults aged 36 to 49 were more likely to confirm that their PCPs provided telemedicine and to have used it. Hispanics used telemedicine the most, even though adults of other races indicated their PCPs offered it the most. Age, gender, and ethnicity did not significantly correlate with PCPs who offered telemedicine, but did correlate with the use of telemedicine. The study contributes to positive social change by improving policy and provider awareness regarding the use of telemedicine as it relates to patient demographics, age, gender, and race, which should be included as part of telemedicine equity discussions in primary care settings.

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