Pandemic opens door for innovation

As this whole Covid thing unfolded in March of last year, I began looking for silver linings to the dark clouds ahead of us. At the time, my hope was that it would force us to make progress in the utilization of remote learning, which is a net-plus for rural Nebraska. To some extent, that has come to pass, although we have learned that it is perhaps not as effective for the little folks among us. It’s particularly ineffective for little folks with disengaged parents, but from an economic development perspective, remote education (for higher learning) and telecommuting can only benefit our local economy.

Now, 10 months into the situation, I have now had my first experience with truly off-site, commercialized telemedicine. In the past, I have heard industry-specific offers for telehealth (most notably for those with Bob Dole-type issues), but only recently have I been exposed to offers of general telehealth.

Personally, I find myself in an odd situation. I have done business with a doctor 30 miles to the east, and I understand that these guys see 20-25 folks a day, but after more than 15 years of going to him, he acts like he doesn’t know me. I also don’t enjoy the 60-mile round-trip.

Locally, we have a great doctor who delivered both of my children, has looked after my mom and my in-laws. He’s a good guy, but an appointment at that clinic doesn’t mean much. It’s kind of like waiting for the cable guy to show up, but in a room full of sick people and magazines you’re afraid to touch. To his credit, I would attribute some of those delays to how generous the good doctor is with his time, and can only assume that people like my hyper-conversational in-laws may contribute to that equation.

I also tried to go by the Urgent Care solution. They are good for some things. I recently had a bout with strep and they bailed me out. Other members of my family have leaned on them with similar issues. The turnaround time is usually as good as advertised, but when I asked if they were willing to help me manage my ongoing blood pressure medications, they replied that it was contingent upon my “compliance.” I know they meant well. In the medical world, compliance refers to doing lab work when told, but to a guy like me, the term “Compliance,” conjures up images of Stalinism or Kristallnacht. It’s not a warm, fuzzy word.

Enter telehealth. The process was fairly straight forward. I had to go online and fill out a medical history, upload a photo of my driver’s license and photos of my current prescription bottles. I tried to do it all on my desktop because I prefer a fat-keyed, clicky keyboard, but the system appears to prefer a mobile app. Once I made the switch, the entire sign-up process took less than an hour.

Once the application was made, I had to wait for the cue to log on and take the face-to-face appointment.

I suppose they had to check me out, but the next morning I was cleared and the online ping was received within 15 minutes. They made me pop my driver’s license again to match it with what I had submitted, and had a look at my bloated face. Do you remember the “freshman fifteen?” I’m sporting the Covid fifteen.

The online interview required me to take my blood pressure and heart rate. Being just a bit obsessive on those issues, I had the necessary gear to provide those numbers, but once checked out, the attending physician (to this day, I have no idea what state she was in) gave me the go-ahead and I was then asked for my pharmacy information.

I have always done business with Angie at U-Save. Her kids went to school with mine and she has always been my go-to when I have a question about the pharmaceutical industry. The telemedicine folks called it in and we were able to pick up my four blood pressure prescriptions that afternoon.

The nice news is that my virtual visit cost about 20% of what I would have spent at a brick-and-mortar clinic. It’s not for everyone and I certainly don’t want our local healthcare system to collapse from out of town competition, but it was nice to be able to conduct the transaction from my home office, and the results were satisfactory.

The pandemic has been a tragedy for public health, for human life, and the economy, but even the darkest clouds have silver linings.

Be well.