{"id":342831,"date":"2026-03-22T22:55:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/342831\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:55:32","slug":"virtual-health-care-not-living-up-to-full-potential-study-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/342831\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual health care not living up to full potential, study suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Despite the proliferation of virtual care during and following the pandemic, the practice is not freeing up doctors as some might have hoped, according to new research published in the journal BMC Primary Care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t providing more access to care. The doctor is still the bottleneck,\u201d said Myles Leslie, one of the study\u2019s co-authors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because virtual care tends to just be physicians speaking to patients by phone, said Leslie, a researcher at the University of Calgary\u2019s School of Public Policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And phone calls still take up time in the doctor\u2019s day, just as an in-person appointment would. Without expanding the pool of doctors, the study says little changes for the roughly 17 per cent of Canadians with no primary care physician.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers conducted a qualitative study interviewing 25 health care professionals from three Canadian provinces \u2014 Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia \u2014 on their experiences with virtual care. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It became increasingly used during the pandemic, as a way to ease pressure on an overburdened health care system, and provide remote options during a time of physical distancing. <\/p>\n

Leslie says there have been some benefits. For patients whose primary desire is convenience, virtual care can provide that. And for patients in more rural settings, it can be an easier way to connect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In-person still incentivized <\/p>\n

The study also suggests virtual care is not as effective as it could be thanks to payment models that incentivize doctors to see patients face-to-face.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current fee-for-service billing codes require what\u2019s called \u2018whites of the eyes,\u2019\u201d said family physician Dr. Christine Leulo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prior to the pandemic, Leulo could only bill for seven calls a week \u2014 nowhere near the 25 to 30 patients she sees daily.<\/p>\n

Now she says there\u2019s no cap on how many calls she can bill for, and a call is priced the same as an in-person visit. <\/p>\n

But if that call is complex and ends up taking more time, it is still priced the same. With in-person appointments, on the other hand, doctors have ways to charge more for longer visits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ADr. Christine Leulo has been in family medicine for over 25 years. She says virtual care has been a good add-on in her practice, helpful for triaging patients, doing check-ins and providing test results. (Chelsey Mutter\/CBC )<\/p>\n

Doctors are also financially encouraged to see a patient themselves. Leulo gives the example of a nurse who specializes in diabetes handling all of the diabetic patients who come in. The doctor can not bill for those patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you still have to pay for the nurse \u2026 and you have to pay for the room,\u201d said Leulo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That dilemma is echoed by some of the professionals quoted in the study. One, whose name was not provided, says the virtual care team can \u201calmost be too efficient,\u201d because they are \u201cstarting to rob\u201d the doctors of some billing opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What could change<\/p>\n

Leslie says there are a few clinics in Alberta that have shifted their funding models away from the \u201ceyeball-to-eyeball\u201d requirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The province also brought in a new compensation model last year that incentivizes physicians to take on more patients outside of typical working hours. Leslie says he has seen more doctors gravitating toward it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To encourage more use of virtual care, Leslie says it will require a cultural shift to integrate more members of the health care team, like nurses, specialists and pharmacists. <\/p>\n

He says expanding its use beyond phone calls to use secure messaging systems or video calls more often could also help. <\/p>\n

A majority of respondents to the qualitative study said they’ve seen improved efficiency thanks to the expansion of virtual care. <\/p>\n

Leulo says her practice\u2019s patients have given a thumbs up to virtual care in recent satisfaction surveys, and that it has been helpful for follow-ups, check-ins, and to relay lab results.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-342831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}