Few differences in rural and urban adoption of veterinary telehealth services

Objective: To determine the current reasons why or why not veterinarians use certain telehealth services and the barriers to usage of these same services. Moreover, we aimed to understand how veterinarians differ in the use of such services across urban and rural areas.

Methods: Usage and nonusage rates between rural and urban/suburban practitioners were computed and tested via paired t tests where appropriate. The most common reasons why various telehealth services were and were not adopted were also computed. Didactic comparison was used to compare reasons between rural and urban respondent subsamples.

Results: The results showed that concerns around liability, suboptimal care, familiarity of the services, and staff willingness to use telehealth services were the primary concerns. Other reasons were also often cited. For those who adopted telehealth services, increasing efficiency was often the most cited reason.

Conclusions: There were some differences in reasons for adoption between rural and urban practices, but many of the reasons were largely the same. The differences can be attributed to general differences between rural and urban practices (ie, different types of animal populations). Concerns about care and staff willingness to adopt various telehealth services were predominate reasons.

Clinical relevance: Given the reasons documented in our findings for not using telehealth services, efforts to train and educate on how to use these services appropriately could help expand the use of these services. Doing so could expand veterinary care access to existing and new clients, improve cost management, and increase revenue for veterinary practitioners.