Patient experiences with medication abortion services provided via telemedicine at Whole Woman’s Health of Peoria, Illinois, clinic
Ibis Reproductive Health. Patient experiences with medication abortion services provided via telemedicine at Whole Woman’s Health of Peoria, Illinois, clinic. April 2020.
Telemedicine, the provision of health care at a distance through technology, can expand access to high-quality care by increasing availability, reducing costs, and offering a patient-centered approach. Many health care services, such as radiology, mental health care, and emergency medicine, have expanded their reach through telemedicine.
In 2011, Ibis Reproductive Health (Ibis) launched a program of work to evaluate the safety of telemedicine for medication abortion services and how its implementation affects access to abortion. To date, this work has aimed to better understand the use of this emerging technology and its potential to transform abortion care.
Whole Woman’s Health (WWH) is a privately-owned health care management company operating abortion clinics in the United States. In Illinois, WWH must adhere to the requirement that a physician prescribe and dispense mifepristone for medication abortion. To increase the number of abortion appointments available, WWH of Peoria began offering medication abortion via telemedicine in Peoria, Illinois, in September 2016. This brief explores WWH of Peoria’s patients’ experience and satisfaction with the telemedicine service.