Background: The urgent and reactive implementation of telemedicine during the pandemic does not represent a long-term, strategic, and proactive approach to optimizing this technology. The assumptions, perceptions, and experiences of the behavioral health providers using telemedicine can inform system-wide and institutional-level strategies to promote longitudinal maintenance of care delivery, which can reduce the use of high-cost care due to new symptom onset and symptom exacerbation related to service interruptions.
Objective: We aim to identify the assumptions, perspectives, and experiences of behavioral health clinicians and providers using telemedicine to inform the development of an optimized, sustainable approach to telemedicine implementation.