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With the rapid rise of technology in recent years, people across the Ozarks and the world are seeing things done with computers and machines that they never thought were possible. Now, CoxHealth is offering what it calls an “eVisit” that could replace those long hours you spend reading magazines in a hospital waiting room. KSMU’s Matt Evans has more.
The Internet is a place of unparalleled opportunity. You can visit a country across the globe, learn how to tie a bow-tie, or even become a wizard fighting for justice: all in a matter of seconds. Now, you may be able to add ‘visit your family doctor’ to that long list of opportunities on the World Wide Web.
“It basically allows a patient to connect with their physician”
That’s Dr. Louis Krenn.
“Through our online patient portal to basically do what would replace an office visit.”
Krenn is a family physician and the chief medical information officer at CoxHealth Center in Willard.
He says Cox’s eVisits program is an extension of the existing Patient Express service, which allows patients to do minor things like schedule appointments and refill prescriptions online. The eVisits program has been in the testing phase since early March. Krenn says the response from both patients and doctors at the three clinics trying out the service has been encouraging.
“Patients like it because they don’t have to come to the office necessarily; they don’t have to take off work for things that are pretty mild or pretty minor.”But who determines what is mild or minor enough to have an eVisit instead of a regular doctor’s appointment? Krenn says that’s up to the physicians.
“We haven’t set necessarily a menu, if you will, of what can be done over an eVisit. It’s up to the physicians’ comfort level of whether or not that particular problem requires a face-to-face visit.”
Here’s how the eVisits work: the patient logs onto the Patient Express service account and sends an online message to the doctor any time of the day. The doctor will answer back within normal business hours.
Krenn says one reason the eVisits are so appealing to patients is not only because it saves time, it also saves money. The charge for an eVisit is $30; the charge for a routine doctor’s appointment can sometimes run well over $100. Krenn says he believes the program will be up and running at all of the CoxHealth clinics within a month.
St. John’s spokesperson Cora Scott says that major health system is also working on a similar program to Cox’s “Patient Express” and “eVisits” called “Patient Portal,” but it is still in its early stages.
For KSMU News, I’m Matt Evans.
