Did the pandemic influence telehealth use among Swiss emergency department patients? A sequential explanatory study.

The pandemic seems not to have increased telehealth use among walk-in ED patients. The slight increase observed in telehealth use among women seems related to the use of the COVID-19 app from trusted sites like the Federal Office of Public Health. Telehealth emerged as having remits, limits, opportunities and threats. The human factor preference emerged as very important to all key informants. The fear that telehealth threatens the human factor cannot be over emphasised. The telephone remains the biggest telehealth modality among Swiss ED walk-in patients.