ROANOKE, Va. – Carilion Clinic is expanding convenient care options by rolling out two new digital tools to make access to healthcare available when and where patients need it.
Steve Morgan, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer, spoke with us on the importance of easily-accessible healthcare.
“We’ve learned during the pandemic that virtual care is something that our community has supported,” Morgan said. “We can provide quality care through a virtual mechanism for some specific, acute care type of problems that a patient may have.”
“We see this as one tool that we have to be able to serve the region, be able to serve the community, along with in-person visits,” Morgan added. “We’re looking at different ways that we can do in-home remote monitoring and actually being able to conduct more telemedicine visits at home, using some technology that allows for a more in-depth physical at home. This is something that we feel is the future of medicine.”
Carilion Clinic VelocityCare providers will continue to provide timely in-office visits to treat non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries.
No appointment is needed for daily on-site visits. Scheduled urgent care video visits will also remain an option as Carilion adds on-demand urgent care video visits.
Here’s how you can get digital access to healthcare:
Skip the Wait: Access to 24/7 Urgent Care
Carilion is now offering on-demand virtual visits.
Patients can jump online anytime and speak to a provider in minutes for urgent care needs such as allergies, cold/flu, respiratory issues, urinary tract infections, sprains and strains, eye irritation, or nausea.
Carilion Now is working toward offering more specialty services.
How It Works:
- Visit the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to download their app to your device or log in to CarilionNow.com.
- Once you complete your profile, confirm if the visit is for yourself or a dependent.
- Fill in the reason for the visit.
- Complete your medical history, and select the pharmacy of your choice. Selections will repopulate for future visits.
- Complete payment. Discounts are available for Medicare Plan B participants and Carilion employees using Carilion Employee Aetna Insurance.
- See a list of available providers and read their bios before selecting.
- Briefly wait in the waiting room until your provider is ready for the visit. You can even enter your phone number to receive a text upon provider availability.
- Complete the visit and receive a summary by email or MyChart immediately following the visit.
- Prescriptions, if necessary, will automatically be sent to your pharmacy.
MyChart Direct Scheduling
Patients can also now schedule, change or cancel appointments for most pediatric and primary care practices through MyChart.
Patients must have visited a provider within the past two years to use this tool.
“Both of these tools are aimed at our community, being able to provide convenient care and being able to provide a way for all of the patients that we have in different regions, whether that’s rural, whether that’s urban, to be able to connect with our health system,” Dr. Morgan said.
To schedule an appointment online:
- Log in to MyChart.
- Select Visits.
- Click on Schedule an Appointment.
Read more details on the new digital health tools on Carilion’s website.