UMass Memorial Health Care Launches New Game-Changing Virtual Care Service
Online Diagnosis Offers Safe, Fast and Affordable Treatment Option
WORCESTER, Mass., Oct. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Not feeling well? UMass Memorial Health Care now has a pilot program for eligible employees and their covered dependents who have a UMass Memorial Medical Group physician, e-Visit is a profoundly simple online diagnosis and treatment service for straightforward health problems. e-Visit will connect eligible patients to a trained group of UMass Memorial clinicians online for free, making mainstream medicine accessible to qualified patients with a web-enabled device anywhere in Massachusetts.
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At this time, e-Visit is available only to UMass Memorial Health Care system employees and their covered dependents who have a Medical Group physician, and who get their health/medical insurance through one of the UMass Memorial Health Care health plans. Using e-Visit, the covered employees and their covered dependents will, when deemed medically appropriate, be able to receive high-quality virtual care for common medical conditions such as sinus infections, female bladder infections, pink eye, or cold, cough and flu—free of charge. Circumstances not suitable for virtual care are triaged out of the system with recommendations for alternative care resources.
Patients start a virtual visit at e-Visit and complete an online adaptive interview guided by the Zipnosis platform. Intelligently using the latest evidence-based medical guidelines, interviews typically take less than five minutes to complete. The patient's medical history and symptoms are then forwarded to a UMass Memorial provider for review and diagnosis. When the diagnosis and treatment plan are ready the patient receives a text or email alert. If a prescription is appropriate, e-Visit allows the provider to send the prescription electronically to the pharmacy of the patient's choice.
"The Zipnosis platform provides the payoff we always hoped for with technology," explains William Corbett, MD, senior vice president of community practices at UMass Memorial Medical Group. "It integrates seamlessly into our existing operations flow and creates efficiencies that reduce clinical assessment times. This enables us to care for more patients with our existing primary care providers instead of adding staff." Corbett added, "If a patient can't be treated virtually, the system makes it easy to receive the next level of care with us—whether it's through our 855-UMASS-MD line, patient portal or even urgent care centers. We believe this is the future of healthcare, offering a win for patients and our health system by providing a strategic way to better connect our patients to the care they need."
"Our partnership with UMass Memorial is exciting for Zipnosis," says Jon Pearce, CEO and co-founder of Zipnosis. "It is gratifying to see health systems like UMass Memorial take a strategic leap to launch a virtual care service and reap the benefits to patients and providers alike. Through its virtual care service, UMass Memorial has positioned itself as a market leader in Central Massachusetts with our platform empowering their patients and clinicians."
Designed on the premise of quality care above all else, Zipnosis is continuing to improve patient care one click at a time – beating urgent care compliance to CDC's clinical guidelines for many of the conditions it treats. In fact, adherence to evidence-based guidelines via the Zipnosis platform is 98.4 percent for sinusitis and nearly 100 percent for UTI, while the average for urgent care centers is 70 percent.
ABOUT UMASS MEMORIAL HEALTH CARE
UMass Memorial Health Care is the largest not-for-profit health care system in Central Massachusetts with more than 12,900 employees and 1,670 physicians, many of whom are members of UMass Memorial Medical Group. Our member hospitals and entities include Clinton Hospital, HealthAlliance Hospital, Marlborough Hospital, UMass Memorial Medical Center and Community Healthlink, our behavioral health agency. With our teaching and research partner, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, our extensive primary care network and our cancer, diabetes, heart and vascular, and musculoskeletal programs, UMass Memorial delivers safe, high-quality and compassionate care.
Call 855-UMASS-MD (855-862-7763) for all your health care needs. Visit umassmemorialhealthcare.org.
ABOUT ZIPNOSIS
Founded in 2008, privately-held Zipnosis is the first virtual care solution to empower health care systems with the technology and methodology to launch their own virtual care service line in a profoundly fast and simple way. The proven-in-use, best practice-based methodology ensures health system-wide engagement, while the asynchronous, adaptive assessment software offers patients modern-day access and convenience, while significantly reducing the clinical time required to safely diagnose, treat or triage more than 90 minor medical conditions.
The unique health system brand extension approach enables a branded, digital access point to attract more patients to the care they need and ensures in-system care quality and continuity from the health system's clinicians and triage points. Visit www.zipnosis.com, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to learn more.
Contact:
Julie Mikkelson
651-210-6758
Email
SOURCE Zipnosis
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