Widening Racial Disparities During COVID-19 Telemedicine Transition: A Study of Child Mental Health Services at Two Large Children's Hospitals.

Objective: To examine whether racial disparities in access to pediatric mental health care were affected during the COVID-19 telemedicine transition at both The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Boston Children's Hospital (BCH).

Method: Electronic health records were queried for all unique outpatient visits from a pre-pandemic period in 2019 and a within-pandemic period in 2020. Changes in the proportion of patients were compared based on insurance status, clinic location, and racial identification.