With so much need for immediate, 24 hour urgent care the value of the virtual doctor has increased dramatically over the past few years. Sometimes there is more to the online medical appointment than the actual need, being that it calms the patient (usually children) by seeing that there is advice being by a real physician.
What is The Virtual Doctor?
The most natural definition of a virtual doctor is an online doctor. Virtual care is a rapidly increasing industry, especially with the need for the evaluation of a cough or cold to be immediate. Advice can be given without seeing a patient in person, especially from an online pediatrician. Both the child is calmed, and the parent is advised how to care for the issue. Sometimes the easy solution may just be an over-the-counter medication, and there is no need to run to urgent care or the doctor’s office where there may be a wait. There would be no need to run to the emergency room with added expense and an even longer wait when an immediate online doctor can provide reliable, calming advice.
Increasing Value of the Virtual Doctor
It has been predicted that the value of the virtual care industry, consisting of online doctors, will grow to over 36 billion dollars by 2020. This means that you may have 24 hour access to convenient medical care. This is on-demand care provided at all hours of the day by qualified and experienced doctors from anywhere. There is no need to leave your home when a health issue occurs in the middle of the night, and immediate response and advice will always be available.
Leading Medical Practice of the Online Doctor
There are typically three critical approaches to the care for the online patient by the virtual doctor. Any of these may be helpful, while in some cases one may be more valuable than the others. These include:
- Virtual online care provided by your primary care physician.
- Virtual appointments from a different physician that is still within the same medical network.
- Virtual appointments can also be given from a different doctor in a different network.
While all three of these methods of online care are possible for any patient, there may be some that are better for patients with different issues. Say, if a patient has a permanent condition and needs to be seen by their primary care physician, then it is likely best that the first method is used at all times. For those without permanent health issues, it could be better to have immediate care with either of the other options.