datlas 

I noticed a very interesting trend in office visits comparing my office and a sister office a few towns over.

My office is in a college town/county seat, and most patients are college educated/white collar. The sister office is in a post-industrial town (the steel mills are all shut down) and more blue-collar.

Our patients are generally NOT wanting to come in for regular visits, more than half are cancelled. And the patients who are sick don't want to come in and want us to diagnose/treat over the phone. We are seeing VERY few patients in the office.

The sister practice is still quite busy, patients are coming in for physicals/routine office visits and sick visits too. I am guessing that it's a demographic issue. It's good for the sister office economically, but maybe not so good for their population as a whole.

I am trying to convince the majority of my patients to do telehealth visits whenever possible. If in-person necessary (like say a physical) I am willing to see those patients now but also fine to postpone routine annual physicals a few months. I am leaving that decision up to the patients (for now).