Telehealth
This #thankyouthursay, I am grateful for telehealth.
To be honest, I never really understood the appeal before. For example, our former pediatrician wanted us to have a telehealth appointment for B’s nine-month well visit, and that made no sense—we mainly wanted to know his weight and height percentiles.
However, for the past many weeks I have had a persistent patch of eczema on my fingertip that has perpetually blistered and cracked, and if that sounds gross and painful that’s because it is, but I had been putting off seeing a doctor because I knew a doctor would offer steroids, and I didn’t really want steroids, plus I definitely didn’t want to bother with going to a doctor.
But since I tend to “move at the pace of pain,” I finally reached a point of discomfort on Monday where I became willing to ask for help. However, of the four dermatologist recommendations a family friend gave me, I got three no-answers and one receptionist who offered me an appointment…in December. December! It’s July.
That’s when my partner was like, what about Patient First, and I was like, oh yeah I forgot about urgent care walk-in options, maybe I’ll go with the baby later this afternoon after work, even though of course hanging out with a 1-year-old in the waiting room of an urgent care clinic for an unspecified amount of time is not exactly an exciting prospect.
And then on the Patient First website I saw a telehealth option, and I qualified for it (meaning my health issue was deemed appropriate for remote support), and the time from registration to prescription was less than 30 minutes. WHAT? THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
The doctor was just the most genial, understanding person who immediately grasped my situation and quickly arranged for effective treatment. He was unfazed that my camera wasn’t working and trusted that I knew how to describe and assess my affliction. Bonus points, he had firsthand experience with eczema and shared my frustrations with treatment options (although, as expected, steroids did end up being the answer).*
As I later told the follow-up survey about my experience, “It’s hard to overstate my appreciation for this service. … I was able to speak with a physician who completely understood my condition and concerns, and by the end of the day I had the medication I needed in hand. Bonus, I didn’t have to bring my 1-year-old to a physical waiting room.”
Telehealth—and technology, and qualified people willing to pioneer a new way of offering medical care—FTW. I am so grateful.
Love > fear,
Christina
*As much as I prefer to avoid steroids, they are totally working, and I will only be using them for a short period of time, so I freely admit my resistance is illogical ¯\_(ツ)_/¯