Fragmentation of Care
Here is another example how we have lost our way in medicine. The article in the WSJ is entitled Doctors Move To Webcams and it tries to introduce you to the era of virtual medical visits. In fact, WellPoint, “the nation’s second-biggest health insurer, plans to offer a new service in all of its employer and individual plans that will allow people to consult with physicians on-demand, using laptop webcams or video-enabled tablets and smartphones. The insurer says the video consults will appeal to clients looking for “convenience and accessibility of care”. What a crock of shit. Though I am not against technology, virtual visits via webcams only work if it augments the relationship between a patient and their OWN doctor. What the media is missing is that theses types of trends just adds to the fragmentation of healthcare. Going to the urgent care for issues that are not urgent is inappropriate. Going to the webcam for issues that should be dealt with by your primary care doctor is inappropriate. It is not good in the long term. The naysayer’s response will be that your family doc is just too busy so things need to be done to help offset the load. Exactly! But not by fragmenting care. There needs to be a paradigm shift where family docs have only 1/3 of the amount of patients that they have now and they can do their own virtual visits only if there is an emergency which then could be followed up the next morning in their OWN office. The only way to do this is to take the WellPoints and other third-party idiots out of the equation and go back to a direct pay system.
You are so right. I have a problem with Walgreens walk in clinics whose sole purpose is to sell what is on their shelf and patients go there for colds that they should not even visit a doctor for and walk out with 4 prescriptions all filled of course at Walgreens.
Doug, lets combine that with your recent post on insurance companies trying to sell consumers on 24/7 access to their doctor…a buzz in your ear at 3 AM, the red light above the camera blinks on, and yippee, you can sit up in bed out of a dead sleep and counsel a nervous patient with the flu. And not, of course for anything as dirty as cash, but for the privilege of being an open-end comfort to mankind.
Ken: As above. Our hospital actually has a robot which is supposed to do neurology consults with a distant neurologist in case ours is gone. After a demo one of the (layman) hospital board members asked how an exam could be done without touching the patient. The neurologist in the robot replied that diagnosing a stroke and making a decision about TPA didn’t require touching the patient. They are talking about using it to bring a psychiatrist to ER for psych patients…..I can’t even imagine, since half of those patients already think they’ve been invaded by aliens..
Now exactly HOW does one do apelvic and rectal exam via webcam?
Just counting the seconds until I can retire.