Virtual visits coming for UMass Memorial patients
UMass Memorial Health Care is entering the growing field of virtual doctors’ visits, agreeing to a deal with a Minneapolis-based company to provide online diagnosis and treatment, the company, Zipnosis, said Monday.
The system will focus on common medical conditions, such as sinus infections, colds, flu, female bladder infections and pink eye, according to a statement from privately-held Zipnosis.
UMass Memorial’s nearly 13,000 employees will be able to use the service starting in October, and the health care system hopes to unveil it to the general public early next year, Zipnosis said. The company believes virtual visits will be offered for a flat fee and may be covered by insurance. The service will be available 24 hours a day, with provider diagnoses and treatment available within an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Requests that come in at night will be prioritized for response the following morning, Zipnosis said.
"Through our partnership with Zipnosis, we are excited to give more patients access to fast, affordable mainstream medicine in minutes," said Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial.
"The Zipnosis platform will allow us to make high quality care from our own clinicians available to patients where and when they want to receive it, at an affordable price,” UMass Memorial President and CEO Eric Dickson said in the Zipnosis statement. “This new service is an important component of UMass Memorial's commitment to growing our virtual medical capabilities.”
Dickson said UMass Memorial offers similar care for the most serious conditions, such as monitoring of patients in intensive care units, as well as its teleneurology program.
A 2014 report from the consulting firm Deloitte predicted 100 million such visits globally last year, representing growth of 400 percent from 2012 and potentially saving health-care providers more than $5 billion over the costs of in-person visits.
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