Telemedicine Familiarity and Post-Disaster Utilization of Emergency and Hospital Services for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions

The authors compared telemedicine use before and after the 2017 Tubbs wildfire in California to determine if knowledge of the virtual option affected hospital use. They noted a year-long decrease in emergency department and inpatient use for patients with asthma, diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, and coronary artery disease for those who were familiar with telemedicine prior to the incident.