When you see your doctor on your mobile device or computer, you can save money on gas, parking, and public transportation. Even better, you don’t waste time traveling or risk running into a traffic jam that makes you late for your appointment, or worse, late getting back to work.
Speaking of work, video visits largely remove the need to take time off. You can simply schedule your visit during a break, or before or after work. You can be anywhere that offers sufficient privacy. You can comply with your doctor’s follow-up instructions and maintain your health without missing a day of work or wasting your precious paid time off.
Many of us have the responsibility for caring for children or older adults. Finding alternative care so that you can see the doctor can be difficult and expensive. Bringing them along can be stressful or impractical. Fortunately, telemedicine solves this challenge by allowing you to see your doctor while upholding your family responsibilities.
More and more physician’s practices are offering telemedicine these days, so there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to see your regular doctor via video. If you can’t, but still need remote access to care, there are a number of online-only, on-demand options. They can’t treat every condition, but can tackle a wide variety of problems.
Some patients who need the care of a specialist must drive long distances and invest a lot of time for each visit. Telemedicine makes it possible for you and your primary care physician to leverage the expertise of specialists who are not nearby. For those patients who require detailed physical examination, telemedicine can be a screening to ensure you do not need acute care. It will also help those with chronic ailments who just need refills on prescriptions or advice on how to improve their ENT problems from home. If you are a new patient to the practice, telemedicine will be a good way to see what you need done (testing, medicine or other trials) before a clinic visit. If your ailments can addressed remotely, you can simply avoid a clinic visit and save time.
Where can you be sure to find a lot of sick people? At the doctor’s clinic of course. While everyone does their best to prevent one patient from catching something from another, it is always possible, especially in crowded waiting rooms. By staying home, you get the care you need while avoiding the risk of exposure and the chance that you’ll pass your illness on to someone else.
If you choose a video visit via telemedicine technology, you’ll eliminate all that time spent looking at old magazines in a doctor’s office. Even if you don’t use telemedicine, choosing a practice that offers it will reduce your wait time by letting other patients be seen from home.
When you are able to see your doctor as often as you need to, without the challenges of getting into the office, you can practice better management of your medication, lifestyle, and any chronic conditions you might have.