Travel and environmental impact saved by virtual visits at a U.S. hospital

From 2020 to 2022, the virtual visits with surgeons in a United States hospital saved the patients more than one million miles in travel distance and almost 150 thousand US dollars in travel expenses in total. In addition to reducing patient travel burden, virtual visits also had a large environmental impact in the form of 50 thousand gallons of saved fuel consumption and preventing more than 480 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. These effects were at least five times higher compared to the impact of virtual visits from 2017 to 2019.