Health Care Innovations

Health Care in growing within their technological field every day. They are continuously coming out with new things that can help improve the world of health care as we know it. One of those things that they have come up with is online health care clinics. Online health care clinics are clinics that you can go to from anywhere where you have internet access, most people use it from home or by phone, but you can also use it while you are traveling as well. You can use these services day or night, and you just pick the state that you will be traveling through when the prescription is available.

These clinics have all the same staff that a normal clinic that you would visit would have, accept you can do everything online right at from your fingertips. Virtual clinics treat common conditions such as acne, bladder infections, breast infections, burn and sunburns, some STI’s (chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Trichomoniasis) Cold, Cough and Allergy’s, Deer tick bites, ear pain, Flu, lice, pinkeye and styes, skin and nails issues and yeast infections. (“Virtuwell”, 2013). What happens is when you first log on to the clinic you create a username and password for future reference if you need to come back all your information can be saved.

You provide all your information to a nurse practitioner, they review your information and within 30 minutes or so they get you a prescription or whatever treatment that is needed. You do not have to have insurance; if you do, the cost may be reduced if you do not have insurance its $40, plus the cost of the prescription. This is a quick and easy way to get those common conditions evaluated and treated by trained health care workers from the convenience of your home.

Online health care can benefit patients because they do not have to leave their homes or offices in order to speak with a doctor about a condition and can get advice right there online or over the phone without having to wait in line and pay the costly office visit. Although this program is not available for more in depth conditions, common conditions that are easily treatable can be addressed in these online clinics. Online health care clinics can improve quality of life because of the convenience of seeing a physician online.

However, for someone who does not have access to the internet or does not really know how to use the internet it may not be as useful for them. By having these services available to speak with a doctor online and having common conditions diagnosed it will decrease health care spending because not as many patients are going into the clinics or hospitals for common conditions which allows lower cost in health care. It is also more cost effective for the patients because if they do not have insurance it’s a small fee versus getting a higher medical bill by going into an actual clinic that they would not be able to pay later.

Patients can decrease the amount of money they are spending on health care by utilizing these online health care clinics. They will not be paying for expensive office visits and if a prescription is required for their condition, they can ask for a generic drug that will also reduce health care spending. These virtual clinics are also nice for health care providers because it allows them to see and diagnose more patients in a shorter time. In addition, everything is online so you are avoiding the cost of paper being used because it is all stored online.

You even have the option of keeping your records online for you to come back and access at anytime that need to see them. This is not only cost effective for the patient but also for the health care provider as well because they are reducing the amount of money it cost to store those records. I believe that online health care clinics will become a big trend into the future as our technology continues to advance. I know there isnt a lot of states right now that offer this program.

Virtuwell is only offered in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, but as the word gets out about this program, I think that more and more states will develop online health care clinics because it avoids people coming into the clinics and passing germs around, with the option of going online you can stay at home and the sicknesses can be more controlled. ————————————————- References Virtuwell. (2013). Retrieved from http://www. virtuwell. com