In the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, Summit Medical Group Oregon (SMGOR) announced a significant expansion to its telemedicine and virtual triage services. SMGOR now has the platform and functionality to offer video medical visits with an urgent care provider to any county residents experiencing flu-like symptoms or concerned about COVID-19 exposure. The largest independent multispecialty physician group in Central Oregon, SMGOR is aiming to help make it easy for patients to seek care, while mitigating exposure for all health care workers and patients to the coronavirus.
Individuals with a cough, fever and/or shortness of breath developed in the last seven days can utilize SMGOR’s new telemedicine platform to visit with a physician or advanced practice provider on their phone, tablet or computer. To use the service, patients should call 541-706-2319, and an SMGOR care team member will assist them in setting up a virtual visit appointment. The care team will also register the patient, establish an online medical record account and help the patient download the video visit app from the Google or Apple app store. The telemedicine visits are approved by Medicare and nearly all insurance companies in Oregon. Video visits are not for emergency services and patients experiencing life-threatening emergencies still need to call 911 for care.
“We’ve worked quickly to set up and test our telemedicine platform, expanding on our nurse triage services and offering patients direct visits with an urgent care physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant. These visits significantly mitigate the risk of exposure for patients and health care workers while offering patients high-quality medical consultation services from their homes,” says Russell Massine, MD, chief physician executive, Summit Medical Group Oregon. “We hope this will lessen the burden on our neighboring hospitals and provide patients with the reassurance of a virtual provider visit during this challenging time.”
Dr. Massine adds that because it is still cold and flu season, and allergy season is starting, SMGOR’s offices and urgent care centers continue to see a significant number of patients with these symptoms. “Right now, if you’re feeling ill, it is still much more likely to be a cold or the flu rather than the coronavirus. As with the flu, most people who get coronavirus only experience mild viral symptoms such as fever, cough, muscle pain or weakness and fatigue, and will experience a complete recovery.”
SMGOR is rapidly expanding its ability to offer telemedicine visits with providers in other specialty areas, including primary care, infectious diseases, pulmonology, cardiology, nephrology, allergy and many more.
SMGOR continues to follow the latest CDC guidelines with COVID-19. Along with the CDC, SMGOR recommends that patients at risk for COVID-19 who are not yet showing symptoms or have mild symptoms be evaluated virtually before going to an urgent care facility, doctor’s office or emergency department.
