The Impact of Telemedicine Visits on the Controlling High Blood Pressure Quality Measure During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: Telemedicine visit use vastly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this has had an uncertain impact on cardiovascular care quality. Objective: We sought to examine the association between telemedicine visits and the failure to meet the Controlling High Blood Pressure (BP) quality measure from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of 32,727 adult patients with hypertension who were seen in primary care and cardiology clinics at an urban, academic medical center from February to December 2020. The primary outcome was a failure to meet the Controlling High Blood Pressure quality measure, which was defined as having no BP recorded or having a last recorded BP of ≥140/90 mm Hg (ie, poor BP control). Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between telemedicine visit use during the study period (none, 1 telemedicine visit, or ≥2 telemedicine visits) and poor BP control; we adjusted for demographic and clinical characteristics. Results: During the study period, no BP was recorded for 2.3% (486/20,745) of patients with in-person visits only, 27.1% (1863/6878) of patients with 1 telemedicine visit, and 25% (1277/5104) of patients with ≥2 telemedicine visits. After adjustment, telemedicine use was associated with poor BP control (1 telemedicine visit: odds ratio [OR] 2.06, 95% CI 1.94-2.18; P