To assess show rates between in-person versus telehealth epilepsy clinic before and during COVID-19 pandemic

People with Epilepsy (PWE) have unique challenges including transportation limitations and driving restrictions. COVID-19 pandemic opened up the avenue for telehealth, that has helped some PWE to overcome these challenges. In a recent study, respondents reported benefits of telehealth such as improved access and decreased no-show rates

Retrospective chart review of 2-month time blocks, January-February 2020 and 2021 was done for 2 epileptologists’ clinic schedules at University of Kentucky. In the pre COVID-19 pandemic time (2020) all visits were in-person. In 2021, 60% of clinic visits were via telehealth. Data collected included total number of patients scheduled for clinic visits, number that showed either in-person or via telehealth, number that no-showed and those who cancelled appointments

In 2020, 251 patients where scheduled in-person. In 2021, 94 were scheduled in-person and 149 via telehealth. Odds Ratio (OR) for arrival in 2021 was 2.6826 (95% CI 1.552 to 4.636) p=0.0004. The no-show rate for in-person visits in 2021 was 23.4%, and no-show rate via telehealth was 20.1%. OR of no-show was 0.8251 (95% CI 0.4424 to 1.5386) p= 0.5. In 2021, in-person cancellation rate was 24.4% and telehealth cancellation was 5.36%. OR for cancellations between in-person and telehealth in 2021 was 0.1751 (95% CI 0.0746 to 0.4112) p=0.0001

Based on our results, show rate was higher for telehealth when compared with in-person clinic. We also found that cancellation rate for telehealth was much lower than in-person clinic. These observations likely reflect the ease of keeping an appointment from the comfort of patients’ homes without need for transportation in this population that has several restrictions. This also indicates that telehealth option is promising and convenient for epilepsy care, and hence should be continued in the post-pandemic future