Background: The abrupt shift to virtual care at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had the potential to disrupt care practices in virtual behavioral health encounters. We examined changes over time in virtual behavioral health-care-related practices for patient encounters with diagnoses of major depression. Methods: This retrospective cohort study utilized electronic health record data from 3 integrated health care systems. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to adjust for covariates across 3 time periods, prepandemic (January 2019-March 2020), peak-pandemic shift to virtual care (April 2020-June 2020), and recovery of health care operations (July 2020-June 2021). First virtual follow-up behavioral health department encounters after an incident diagnostic encounter were examined for differences across the time periods in rates of antidepressant medication orders and fulfillments, and completion of patient-reported symptoms screeners in service of measurement-based care. Results: Antidepressant medication orders declined modestly but significantly in 2 of the 3 systems during the peak-pandemic period but rebounded during the recovery period. There were no significant changes in patient fulfillment of ordered antidepressant medications. Completion of symptom screeners increased significantly in all 3 systems during the peak-pandemic period and continued to increase significantly in the subsequent period. Conclusions: A rapid shift to virtual behavioral health care was possible without compromising health-care-related practices. The transition and subsequent adjustment period have instead been marked by improved adherence to measurement-based care practices in virtual visits, signaling a potential new capacity for virtual health care delivery.
CITATION STYLE
Weinfield, N. S., Tavel, H. M., Goodrich, G., McCracken, C. E., Basra, S., Gander, J. C., … Roblin, D. W. (2023). Health-care-Related Practices in Virtual Behavioral Health Treatment for Major Depression Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Medical Care, 61(4), S47–S53. https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0000000000001815
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