Last year, as cases of a new virus forced hospitals and clinics to close their doors as a protective measure, facilities across Iowa were forced to instead offer many of their services virtually.
In Cedar Rapids, Mercy Medical Center reported its providers connected with patients on more than 49,000 telehealth visits between March and December 2020, said Dr. Tim Sagers, a family medicine physician who spearheads the hospital’s telehealth initiatives. In 2019, that total had been less than 1,000 telehealth visits.
At UnityPoint Health locations across Iowa, which includes its health system in Cedar Rapids, telehealth visits rose from 6,700 before COVID-19 to more than 174,000 in the pandemic, officials stated.