I have two children who suffer from seasonal allergies. Their symptoms are similar, usually characterized by rhinitis and frequent sinus infections. These recurrent problems often lead to frequent trips to the doctor’s office. In the past, I’ve been asked by the doctor to keep a hand written account of their symptoms to take back to the office. I believe that if the information could be sent to the doctor electronically, it would be more convenient for the pt, and the doctor could share the information with other clinicians. The data could also be organized to look for any patterns between patients.
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Tags: Health Care Electronic Medical Record, Health Care Informatics Assessment, Healthcare Informatics Electronic Communication, Healthcare Informatics Internet, Healthcare Informatics Resources, Seasonal Allergies
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October 13, 2013 at 1:33 am |
You bring up a valid point. Depending on the physician I can see where some would hesitate to use this system in terms of communicating with their patients. However, if the physician is usually booked every day and there are wait times to get in their office I think that they would love this form of communication. Obviously if you were extremely ill or the doctor didn’t know, based on your symptoms, what you had then I would hope they would tell you that a office visit was the only way to treat you. With the wait times for one of my doctors that I currently see and the fact that I can leave a million messages with my nurse and not hear anything for a week to two weeks I would love if I could just e-mail in my problem and receive a response in a more timely manner.
October 13, 2013 at 1:32 am |
I agree that e-mailing a physician is a beneficial resource. I just wonder if the offices will see a drop in revenue as they will presumably lose billable office visits? It definitely saves us time and money, but the staff must still work to adequately and appropriately respond to all the emails. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of this type of access, but I can see where a physician may hesitate to implement such access.
October 13, 2013 at 1:31 am |
I think that this would be a great system if people didn’t abuse it. I know that I hardly ever go to the doctor, but when I actually break down and do, I feel like I am never sick and the response is always to keep doing what I am doing and take over the counter medicine. I hate paying my $40 co-pay to see my doctor for them to tell me nothing is wrong. I do think that it would be great to email my doctor however right now I only owe my doctors office $120 and they won’t even see me for a checkup until I pay that due. I just think that it is absolutely ridiculous. I could also see many people who are demanding or think that they need more meds continuing to email the doctor when they should just wait and be patient. It is really nice that your doctor is a part of that email for you to service you.
October 13, 2013 at 1:24 am |
My comment on Seasonal Allergies is that e-mailing your physician can be very beneficial. With all of the problems that we are currently having with access issues I think having the ability to e-mail your doctor is a great idea. I do not like to take a half day off of work to see my doctor for a simple cold or sore throat. I also suffer from kidney stones so to send a quick e-mail to describe my symptoms and/or receive a prescription refill is much more convenient for me to communicate with my doctor. I believe in my doctors office many times the nurse is the one to responds to my e-mail after she has received direction from the doctors. This communication is comparable to a phone call, however I can do this at any time, I avoid any ‘hold’ or wait times and can read the response at any time as well. My e-mail is currently interfaced with my cell phone so I can accomplish this task easily, quickly and at any time. With all of the technology that is available to us we should be utilizing whatever means we can to increase our access to healthcare.
May 6, 2013 at 8:43 pm |
I do think having having thing available electronically is very helpful, but at the same time I do not.The doctor may read what you have written him in an email but may not completely understand it. It is good to have oral communication available if need. If he were to have a question, he could call you but having a person right there infront of you is much easier I believe. Everything is becoming electronic now and days, so I better start getting used to it.