Telehealth use for sexual and reproductive health promotion and care during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic: A descriptive-interpretive qualitative study of healthcare providers’ perspectives and experiences in Western - Central New York State

Telehealth emerged as an option for the provision of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care and promotion during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. However, studies are limited on the perspectives and experiences of healthcare providers (HCPs) practicing in the Western-Central region of New York State. This qualitative interpretive study explored the perspectives and experiences of HCPs with telehealth use for sexual and reproductive health promotion including counselling, testing, care and treatment for HIV infection and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), in Western New York State. Ten HCPs participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews from October 2019-February 2021. These providers were predominately white, female, ranged in years of clinical experience (1-30 years). The narratives revealed three major themes: 1) healthcare providers’ perspectives of telehealth use, 2) healthcare providers’ experiences with telehealth use for SRH promotion and care, and 3) determinants of telehealth implementation. Though all providers reported an increase in the use of telehealth, experiences in the delivery of telehealth varied especially for sexual and reproductive health services. Some providers reported having more time to consult with patients because of a decrease in patient load which freed up time to engage with patients. Others reported technological limitations among some patients which impacted care. Strengthening telehealth-based sexual health promotion will serve to address efforts toward ending the HIV epidemic, reducing other STIs, and ensuring consistent access to contraception. To effectively implement telehealth findings, suggest a need to ensure adequate technological resources for patients, and a need to increase HCPs’ comfort to engage patients in sexual health conversations via telehealth. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement The research leading to these results has received funding from Research Education Institute for Diverse Scholars (REIDS) program at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) at Yale University. Pilot Project Title: “Provider-initiated Couple-centered HIV Prevention Approaches: Perspectives and Practice”, (PI: Leblanc, Natalie) 02/01/2019-01/30/2020. This work was funded from NIH/NIMH grant # R25MH087217-09 (PI: Kershaw, Trace) 09/01/2010-05/31/2020. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: University of Rochester IRB I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data cannot be made publicly available due to patient confidentiality reasons, in adherence with the data access rules of University of Rochester IRB. Data can be accessed upon request from the following contacts: a. Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Rochester Research Subjects Review Board, 265 Crittenden Blvd., CU 420628, Rochester, NY 14642, Telephone numbers (585) 273-4127, (585) 276-0005 or (877) 449-4441. b. The PI Dr. Natalie LeBlanc at natalie_leblanc{at}urmc.rochester.edu c. The corresponding author Sadandaula Rose Muheriwa-Matemba at smuheriw{at}uic.edu