Virtual care is not a video-first rule

The phone is still doing real work

Statistics Canada reported in June 2026 that 77.9% of virtual appointments with family doctors or nurse practitioners, and 62.1% with medical specialists, were telephone only. The study also found that 40.3% of respondents were satisfied and 40.5% were very satisfied with their last virtual appointment. Statistics Canada's study

Those findings answer a narrow but useful question: how people in the study described virtual care they had used. They do not settle whether a particular appointment is clinically suitable for phone, video or in-person care. They also do not measure whether someone can find a clinic, understand its service or complete a booking request. Those are separate journeys.

What this Canadian study can and cannot tell a clinic

The study used the 2023 Canadian Social Survey, collected from 14 July to 7 September 2023. It used a cross-sectional, stratified two-stage sample. Statistics Canada selected 20,000 dwellings, then randomly selected one person from each household. People could answer online or by telephone interview. The response rate was 51.7%. Study methods

Its Canadian scope was non-institutionalized people age 15 and older in the 10 provinces. The total survey sample was 9,288; the virtual-care analysis was limited to 3,410 people who reported a virtual health-care appointment in the previous 12 months. Residents of the territories and reserves, and full-time residents of institutions, were excluded.

• The results describe reported experiences from 2023, not current availability at a particular clinic.
• The survey did not distinguish care from a person's regular provider from care at an on-demand virtual clinic, so it cannot measure continuity for a specific practice.
• Satisfaction covered only the last virtual appointment and used one survey item. The authors note that high ratings limited variation.
• The associations in the study do not prove that one channel caused a better outcome. Clinical suitability and local professional requirements remain decisions for the care team.

Treat the care channel and the booking channel as separate choices

AKIERO's interpretation is operational. A clinic can offer video care and still make the first contact difficult. It can offer telephone appointments and still bury the phone number, leave a voicemail unowned or fail to explain when an in-person visit is needed. A booking page should not pretend to decide clinical appropriateness. It should make the available route understandable and send the person to the right team.

Before promoting a virtual service, ask the clinical and operations leads to agree on which appointment types they can appropriately offer by phone, video or in person. Then give the public the same answer in plain language. If a referral, existing-patient relationship, location rule or in-person assessment may be required, say so before the person shares information. Clinical technology and public access solve different problems, and the booking page should say which one it is helping with.

Make the next step resilient

The study's most commonly reported benefits were convenience, such as avoiding travel and saving time. It also found that delayed starts were the most commonly reported negative aspect across modes. People using video only more often reported equipment or connectivity problems than people using telephone only. Results and limitations

That does not mean a clinic should remove video. It means the operational promise needs a backup. A person should be able to see the expected channel, what they need before the appointment, how to ask a question and what happens if the connection fails. Keep clinical details in the appropriate clinical system, not in a marketing form or campaign platform.

• Name the service, appointment channel and the next action without making a clinical suitability claim online.
• Show a staffed phone route as well as a digital route where the clinic can support both.
• Give the team a non-clinical contingency for a failed video connection, including who follows up and how.
• Record only the operational handoff, such as contacted, booked, rescheduled or completed, in marketing and inquiry systems.

Start with one service and one real check

Choose one service that the clinic already has capacity to provide. On a phone and a desktop browser, check whether a person can tell the difference between requesting information, booking an assessment and joining a virtual appointment. Ask the clinic to review the wording and its process before it goes live. This is service design work, not a shortcut around clinical judgment.

For a small next step, use the clinic inquiry audit to review one public route. If the route is clear but the team cannot see what happens after an inquiry, compare it with what the front desk knows that never reaches the dashboard. AKIERO's websites and appointment-booking work connects the public path with the handoff the clinic can actually support.