Potential COVID-19 patients: The doctor will see you now, virtually, at this UNC clinic
If you are running a hospital, clinic or doctors’ office during a pandemic, something you want to avoid is having contagious people coming in off the street unannounced.
So, many health care centers have turned to various forms of telemedicine to screen patients by phone or computer and to direct them to the right places to get testing or treatment if necessary.
UNC Health opened a virtual care center on March 16 in a Morrisville office building, where doctors, nurses and other health care providers could talk to patients remotely. In the first nine days, they completed 1,647 “virtual visits,” said Stephanie Turner, who is overseeing the effort.
Turner said coronavirus has prompted UNC to embrace telemedicine in a way it never has before.
“We had been planning these services gradually over time, but had yet to really roll it out to scale,” she said. “This was truly an impetus to do that.”
Most UNC Health patients are referred to the virtual care center through one of two ways: by their primary care physician or by calling the UNC Health Helpline, 1-888-850-2684. They’ll first speak to a scheduler who will ask them questions to determine if they need immediate attention or can wait until a doctor or other health care provider can get back to them.
Critically ill patients will be sent to an emergency room, while those with less serious symptoms might be referred to one of UNC’s eight respiratory diagnostic centers, created and equipped to handle coronavirus patients.
The goal is to know when and where potential COVID-19 patients will show up, said Dr. Lynne Fiscus, a primary care physician and CEO of UNC Physicians Network, which includes more than 100 practices statewide.
“We want the first interaction that we have to be planned for,” Fiscus said, “to have health care workers with appropriate protective equipment and not have it happen by accident.”
Fiscus was working Thursday in what’s left of the virtual care center in Morrisville. Not long after it was established it became clear that it made more sense for health care providers to field calls remotely, at home or in their offices, making the virtual care center even more virtual.
“I’m looking out the window, and I count 11 cars right now,” Fiscus said.
No shortage of volunteers
So far, 208 schedulers, doctors, nurses and other health care providers have been trained to answer coronavirus calls, Turner said. Eight licensed clinical social workers will come on soon to help with behavioral health issues, she said.
It’s not been hard finding volunteers; like other health systems, UNC has been canceling non-urgent procedures and appointments, to free up supplies and staff for coronavirus.
Dr. Woodward Burgert was eager to join the virtual care effort when the traffic at the UNC Family Medicine office he runs in Pittsboro fell off. Burgert was one of about 10 health care providers handling coronavirus calls in two shifts Thursday, all working remotely. One is pregnant and working from home, he said.
“We sent her home this week. We don’t want to see her again until she has her baby,” Burgert said. “The technology allows her to ride out a pandemic, keeping herself safe but still providing excellent medical care.”
Burgert says the patients who call are often worried. He said one woman told him her husband had been tested for coronavirus and was home in self-quarantine awaiting the results. She didn’t have any symptoms but for health reasons would be considered a high-risk patient.
“She was terrified,” he said. He referred her to a respiratory diagnostic center to be screened for testing.
But with spring blossoming in North Carolina, Burgert says a lot of people are calling with what are clearly allergy symptoms.
“There is a lot of virtual hand-holding,” he said. “People just wanted a little reassurance, and they couldn’t go and get it from their doctor.”
Burgert said in this time of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, many patients are just as happy to be able to talk to a doctor or nurse or physician’s assistant by phone as to venture out to a doctor’s office or clinic. When the pandemic is over, he’s sure many will want to see their health care providers in person again.
But Turner said coronavirus is showing that telemedicine can work on a large scale, and she thinks it will become more routine.
“I have two teenagers,” she said. “I know that they will demand this technology of us in health care.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 7:13 AM.
