USA health launches virtual visits for new and existing patients during the COVID-19 outbreak. This is to provide safety and convenience for newly established patients with basic needs. According to the USA health news release, the virtual visits can be for initial consultations, post-operation follow-ups, and other health needs that don’t require an in-person visit.
USA Health Launches Virtual Doctor Visits
Doctors conduct appointments by using audio-visual technologies. People can use smartphones or any other devices that have both audio and video capabilities. This allows the patient and health care specialist to interact with each other. The major advantage of this virtual consultation is that doctors and patients can avoid physical contact.
The person who takes an appointment should have a valid email address and to make an appointment or to make a virtual visit, people can call the number provided on the official website of the USA health department. “By moving quickly, it has allowed us to demonstrate the commitment to our patients, community, and USA Health employees that the safety and well-being of all are of the highest priority.
When the dust settles, I am confident that the insights our health system has learned through this rapid response to operationalize virtual visits will help us further develop a great long-term telemedicine strategy,” Shelby Smith, director of care access in USA Health, said.
Doctors and patients turned to telemedicine
The virtual visit or telemedicine is a way of safely treating patients. This helps to put a barrier to the spread of the infection at hospitals, clinics, or medical offices. Many large hospitals across the country are quickly expanding the use of telemedicine to safely screen and treat patients for coronavirus. It is hardly a new experience to see a doctor through your computer or smartphone. Health insurance plans available in the country offers several options to the patients of talking to nurses or doctors. This can be used as an alternative to rushing into an emergency room or clinic.
But a majority of people are not using this facility. So no the hospitals are thinking about how to make people aware of these facilities and their advantages.
“The use of telemedicine is going to be critical for management of this pandemic,” said Dr. Stephen Parodi, an infectious disease specialist, and executive with The Permanente Medical Group, the doctors’ group associated with Kaiser Permanente, one of the leaders in the use of virtual visits for its patients.
Congress has provided an additional boost of $8.3 billion under emergency funding measures for virtual visits and telemedicine. In a meeting on Tuesday at the White House with President Trump, private health insurers offered that they would pay for the virtual visits for people who may have coronavirus to improve access to care for their customers.
Through their smartphone or through any other digital device, patients will be able to get proper guidance and instructions about their health condition, test results, etc. People can also utilize this facility for their routine check with a primary care doctor. This avoids crowded waiting rooms, which helps to maintain social distancing. “Telehealth is being rediscovered. Everybody recognizes this is an all hands on deck moment. We need to scale up wherever we can,” said Dr. Peter Antall, the chief medical officer for AmWell, a company based in Boston that is working with health systems across the country.
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