1. be well
S
top the Web surfing and take a deep breath. You
probably don’t have dysentery — this isn’t the 1800s,
and you are not on the Oregon Trail. However, even in
2015, trying to self-diagnose ailments on the Web when you are
already delirious from fever can lead you down some dark paths.
Best to leave health care up to the professionals.
Enter CHI Franciscan Health’s Virtual Urgent Care, a
service that allows Franciscan patients to connect with doctors
and nurse practitioners 24/7 via phone, tablet, smartphone,
webcam or PC. Virtual Urgent Care offers an easy way for
patients to decide how, when and where they access health care.
And when you’re sick, dragging yourself to the doctor often
feels like setting off for a faraway land in a tissue-filled wagon.
Introduced in late 2013, the interactive health-care service
has saved patients more than $600,000 in health-care costs.
At $35 per visit, the low cost of Virtual Urgent Care gives
you yet another reason to stay at your homestead swaddled in
buffalo blankets and comforted by trading post goodies.
Three-time Virtual Urgent Care user Kate Crofts of
Bonney Lake has nothing but raves for the health-care service.
After a sinus infection lingered a little too long over the
busy holiday season, Crofts discovered Franciscan’s Virtual
Urgent Care on its website. Deciding to give it a big wagon
wheel whirl, Crofts called Virtual Urgent Care. The nurse
practitioner talking with Crofts suggested she come into
the hospital’s urgent-care unit for a chest X-ray, with her
first $35 fee covering her trip into the physical Urgent Care
at the hospital. Crofts is quick to note that the doctors and
nurse practitioners are not going to take risks with your
health and will advise you to come into the hospital if
symptoms are serious.
Crofts and her family utilized the convenience of Virtual
Urgent Care again while Crofts was away on a camping trip.
Her daughter called from home 200 miles away, complaining
of pain, and after a three-way conference call with their nurse
practitioner, Crofts’ daughter had her prescription filled and
was on the road to recovery in less than an hour.
Along with phone calls, Facetime and webcams are ways for
doctors to diagnose rashes, swelling and other visual symptoms
via Virtual Urgent Care, and records are sent to your regular
physician as well.
CHI Franciscan Health is currently expanding its Virtual
Urgent Care to Bremerton’s Harrison Medical Center and
Burien’s Highline Medical Center and as Crofts so poignantly
put it, “It’s just the best thing ever!” (Like finally getting to the
river portion of the Oregon Trail and actually directing your
family and two cows successfully down the river.)
Connecting with a doctor or nurse is a click
away at franciscancarenow.org
THE DOCTOR WILL SEE
YOU — EVEN AT 3AM
Technology is connecting
patients and doctors
BY HALEY HAMILTON
ALONG WITH PHONE CALLS, FACETIME
AND WEBCAMS ARE A WAY FOR DOCTORS
TO DIAGNOSE RASHES, SWELLING
AND OTHER VISUAL SYMPTOMS.
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