SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Doctors may see fewer COVID-19 cases, but that’s not slowing down virtual doctor visits.
What You Need To Know
- Doctors said virtual visits are likely to stay because they’re using them more in cases besides COVID
- Doctors said they’re using virtual visits a lot more for mental health issues
- Medical professionals said more patients are starting to come back in-person, but they are also using curb-side testing as well as virtual visits
“Previously, I always thought it’s hard to do that, I can’t put my stethoscope on them, just the things you get from being in person, but we’ve become very adept at it,” said Premier Health regional director and primary care physician Dr. Joseph Allen.
“We’ve enlisted the help of the patient to do some of those exam things that we traditionally do in the office, so I did not do a single telehealth, or televideo visit prior to COVID hitting,” he said.
Now that he said that he’s been doing video doctor visits daily for the last two years, he said he doesn’t see them slowing down, even though COVID cases might be.
“We’re doing them for things that are not just COVID related, traditionally was the fear of bringing COVID into the office, but now I do visits for ADHD or anxiety or other things that don’t really require me to do a physical exam all that directly,” he said.
In fact, that’s what’s happening at other clinics, too.
“The area that has continued the strongest use is our behavioral health department,” said Stacy Lee, operation director of Rocking Horse Community Center. “Yes, you cannot check an A1-C over the video or over the phone. However, you can see and get a feeling from someone’s voice with how they’re doing.”
She said almost 30% of counseling and psychiatric doctor’s appointments there are virtual.
On the medical side, she said patients are coming back in person, but not always in the building.
“We could do drive-through flu clinics which we did during the pandemic, you could do drive through testing, which we continue to do,” said Lee.
Medical professionals agree that virtual doctor visits aren’t going anywhere, and they plan to keep thinking outside the box, to see more patients in the future.
“I was taught traditional medicine, physical exam skills and we can think outside the box a little bit,” said Allen. “And really think of what can we do, instead of what can’t we do.”
