Have You Ever Had an Online Doctor’s Visit?

You admit that you were skeptical at first, but the fact that you can now visit with a virtual doctor two or three times a month and only travel in to the office once a month has made your life much easier. To be honest, you are more healthy too. The exposure to sick patients in the waiting room once a week typically takes its toll on you as soon as the cold and flu seasons arrive, so the mere fact that you are now limiting your in office visits to once a month is a big step in the right direction.

Online doctors are able to check on pacemakers over the phone, visually assess their patients who find it difficult to travel long distances to the office, and in many cases spend more time with their patients. Going in for an office visit, in fact, is not always necessary, but in the past it was the only option.
Today’s Health Options Continue to Expand
From on-demand care at a 24 hour urgent care to the convenient medical care that is available from a virtual doctor, patients have more options than ever before when it comes to getting and staying healthy. In a time when more people have access to health care through the affordable care act, it should not be surprising that the face of health care would have to change. Waiting for weeks for an appointment with a family physician or pediatrician is simply not feasible in many cases. When you realize, however, that there a general physician located in the U.S. will receive more than 3,500 visits a year it is clear that this format is literally booked, with little room for additional openings. Likewise, hospital emergency rooms are too expensive for minor medical problems.

As a result, several decades ago the walk in clinic format started to gain in popularity. With today’s technology, however, it is now increasingly common for patients to take advantage of the virtual doctor platform. In fact, one recent study found that 52% of respondents are willing to use virtual healthcare to see their own provider. This is further proven by the fact that another recent report claims telemedicine, or the virtual care, industry will be worth $36.2 billion by the year 2020.

Going to the doctor may look different than it has looked in the past, but the goal is always the same: to keep patients as healthy as possible.