A simple success: Thank you to the virtual ER that saved my family a trip to the hospital
When my kid needed to see a doctor this weekend, I cursed under my breath.
Our family health team does a great job of providing urgent care in the off hours—such a good job, actually, that we’ve never had to go anywhere else to be seen. But they close at noon on Saturdays, and it was 2 p.m.
I really didn’t feel like I should wait until Monday to have my six-year-old seen by someone, but I also really didn’t want to go sit in a walk-in or, even worse, an ER.
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It seemed like an unnecessary potential COVID exposure, and would have just been annoying to spend hours entertaining him while we waited to see a doctor. So I texted a mom friend who lives around the corner who's married to a doc, and asked if she thought I should take him to my local hospital, Michael Garron.
She suggested its virtual ER instead—a service the hospital started last March after staff began to get worried that patients who needed care were avoiding the ER because of COVID. They're not the only ones—hospitals across the country have run created virtual ERs during the pandemic.
Sounded good to me. I logged on, downloaded the Maple app they use, and signed up. It let me pick a 15-minute window later that day, and my family carried on with our errands and dinner. That night, after our meal, as my kids played and I did the dishes, my email pinged with a reminder that my appointment was soon.
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I logged in to the app and was soon face to face with a real live ER doc, who seemed to be answering from her home office. I explained my kid’s symptoms, and she asked a few clarification questions and for some background. Then she had me go downstairs, so she could talk to the patient—who was busy playing dino attack in the basement. She asked my kid about how he was feeling, and asked me to check over his skin and gently poke the affected area to see how he reacted.
Then I returned upstairs and we made a plan. The doctor quickly explained two things she thought it might be, and why she felt confident in her diagnosis—part of which was that in her virtual interaction with him, he seemed to be in good spirits. She guessed it was just a common issue—so common that I already had the over the counter remedy in my kitchen cupboard from the last time it came up.
She told me what symptoms might come up—like a fever or lethargy—that would mean it was an actual emergency, and to go to the ER if those happened. But she guessed that if I gave him the treatment she recommended, he would be fine.
I logged out, and checked the time. It had taken just 11 minutes to solve my problem—12 if you counted me calling my kid upstairs to give him the medication I had in my cupboard.
It was one of the best experiences with the healthcare system I have ever had. It was convenient, I fixed my problem, I didn’t have to drag my kid to the ER, I didn’t have to wait for care, we didn’t clog up the system and he didn’t have an unnecessary potential exposure to COVID.
And it turned out, she was right, and he’s feeling better now. And if another Saturday night issue hits one of my kids, we’ll definitely be turning to the virtual ER again.
Vanessa Milne is a freelance writer whose work you'll be seeing frequently in Pharmacy Practice + Business' online coverage.