Many companies since mid-March have considered ways to help neighbors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A med-tech company based in Mobile went further, opting to offer its technology to any hospital, doctor or clinic in the world so doctors could see patients remotely.
For the rest of the year, CPSI will offer its “Talk With Your Doc” telehealth portal free to doctors, clinics, hospitals and other health care providers worldwide. Hospitals don’t need an IT person or weeks of setup. It can be implemented in hours and does not need to be integrated into any current electronic medical record system.
The software connects doctors with their patients through an easy-to-use online portal. More than video chat, patients can share health records, vital signs (such as blood pressure, heart rate and temperature readings), trigger alerts to their doctors and even get pre-screened for COVID-19.
Doctors can provide faster care, and it’s a plus for the medical profession, because due to new regulation changes, the visits are reimbursable.
Normally, the cost of licensing “Talk with Your Doc” could range from $10,000-$30,000 per year for smaller medical clinics and practices, to up to millions of dollars a year for larger hospital systems. But those costs are being waived in light of the ongoing crisis.
The company decided to make the move for two main reasons:
- Patients might feel as though they are experiencing COVID symptoms and they want to interact with a caregiver to see if they might have the virus.
- Patients, especially in rural communities, may be diabetic or they’ve got chronic care conditions and they need to have regular check-in visits with their physician but they don’t want to go in and visit the doctor or go into a hospital because they are afraid of either infecting themselves or infecting others.
“You’ve got patients out there in these communities that may be experiencing COVID-19 symptoms,” says David Dye, CPSI Chief Growth Officer. “They don’t want to simply go into their doctor’s office or an urgent care clinic or the hospital to interact with their caregiver or to be tested because they are afraid that if they don’t have it they might pick it up there or if they do have it they might infect others. So this product gives them the capability to have a virtual visit with their physician and talk about their symptoms.”
CPSI’s core mission through its 40-year history has been to provide hospitals in rural settings, as well as nursing homes and physician offices, with electronic health records and service solutions.
