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Strep throat now treatable via HealtheVisits

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Admin. Tags: Affinity Health System, Affinity Medical Group, health, HealtheVisits, sore throat. No Comments

We are excited to announce that you can now use HealtheVisits to treat strep throat! All you have to do is head over to healthevisits.org and submit an online interview request. An Affinity Medical Group or Ministry Medical Group clinician will review the request within one hour. To confirm a positive strep throat diagnosis, a clinician will order a lab test, called a ZipTicket, which will be sent to you electronically via email.

A ZipTicket allows you to bypass waiting and go directly to one of our labs for a rapid strep test to confirm the diagnosis. When you receive your ZipTicket, you can either print a hard copy of it or bring it up electronically on your phone at one of three available lab locations. When the results of the strep test are available you will receive a final diagnosis that, if necessary, will include a prescription to treat your strep throat.

ZipTickets are accepted at select urgent care locations in the Fox Valley, and we are working to increase the number of labs that will accept them. Below are the urgent care locations where you can currently use your ZipTicket:

Appleton, AMG Richmond Street Clinic, 3329 N. Richmond Street
Neenah, AMG Neenah Main Street Clinic, 101 Main Street
Oshkosh, AMG Koeller Street Clinic, 1855 S. Koeller Street

Wellness that fits into your weekend – HealtheVisits

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Admin. Tags: Affinity Health System, health, HealtheVisits, online treatment. No Comments

Recently I was experiencing some nagging symptoms that had been present for a couple of weeks but weren’t bothersome enough to motivate me to make an appointment with my usual nurse practitioner (NP). Then one Friday morning, as I was getting ready to visit Chicago for three days, I started considering what would happen if my symptoms got worse while I was out of town. Finding an urgent care in Chicago on a weekend was not an exciting prospect, but I was also not too enthusiastic about delaying my departure to get an appointment with my NP or visit Affinity’s Urgent Care. So, I decided to try HealtheVisits.

Using HealtheVisits turned out to be a great decision. Once I launched the application, it took about five minutes to register and fill out the questionnaire about my symptoms. About 15 minutes later, I checked my email even though I didn’t really expect anything for at least an hour. However, I already had a response from Dr. Larson with a diagnosis and treatment plan!

All I had to do next was forward the electronic prescription to the pharmacy of my choice. The application showed a list of local pharmacies with their addresses, and provided a search feature as well. I selected a pharmacy that was on my way out of town, hit send, loaded the car and by the time I got to the pharmacy my prescription was ready.

My favorite things about HealtheVisits were the easy process and the cost—it was all very intuitive and for $35, it’s a cost-effective way to find care. By skipping the usual time it would take to fit an appointment into my schedule—and the time it takes for a full office visit—I was able to go about my business without delay. What a stress saver!

Author: Karla Repta – Director of Clinic System Patient Care Services at Affinity Health System

My experience using HealtheVisits

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Admin. Tags: Affinity Health System, Affinity Medical Group, health, HealtheVisits. No Comments

It was 4:40 p.m. and all of a sudden I realized that, while I had put off going to my primary care provider, the symptoms I was experiencing were not going to go away. At this time of day, working across town from my provider, I clearly wasn’t going to be able to make it in for a same-day appointment.

Then I remembered the new HealtheVisits service that Affinity Health System offers. As a Lean Leader at Affinity, I wanted to observe and study it personally. I signed into the site and selected my symptoms. The system took me through a series of questions that I easily answered in four minutes (I was timing it).

What stood out the most in this process was that the program filtered out my allergy to one of the most popularly prescribed antibiotics for my particular symptom. Another benefit was that it offered a choice of how I would be contacted when my plan of care was completed—via text, email or phone. After selecting my preferences, I hit the submit button, paid the $35 out-of-pocket cost and six minutes later my plan of care was ready.

I received a text message with my diagnosis and link to my prescription, and found that I needed an antibiotic, which made me appreciate the allergy-filter that much more. The link I was provided allowed me to send my prescription to the pharmacy of my choice, showing me the locations in my zip code.

I packed up what I had been working on and headed for the pharmacy, I was thrilled that my prescription had been received quickly and my medication was ready right away. The HealtheVisits experience couldn’t have been better for me, and I would highly recommend the service. Thanks to everyone who put this together and the Affinity Medical Group providers who are managing the service, I was able to receive an accurate, convenient diagnosis, get treatment and go on with my day. It’s a great service!

To learn more about HealtheVisits, visit affinityhealth.org/healthevisits.

Author: Marie Larson – Lean Leader at Affinity Health System

HealtheVisits: an inside look

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Dr. Kirsten Larson. Tags: Affinity Health System, Affinity Medical Group, health, HealtheVisits, Wisconsin. No Comments

My phone buzzes. I pick it up and see the message “There is one HealtheVisit in the queue.”

In this case, the visit is for June (name changed), a 45-year-old woman who has had burning with urination for about 24 hours. Before the message appeared on my phone, June had been to the HealtheVisits website and supplied a thorough description of her current illness as well as relevant medical history. Giving this information was easy thanks to the interview questions on the site that took her step-by-step through the process. June is otherwise healthy and has no symptoms requiring a face-to-face visit, so the answers to her questions are packaged and sent to me.

Upon seeing the notification of a waiting HealtheVisit, I log into the website and read through June’s information. Some of the more important bits are highlighted for me in red by the computer. It appears that June has had several urinary tract infections in the past and recognized the symptoms of this one as soon as they appeared. She has had no fever or back pain. She is allergic to amoxicillin. After careful review, I move on to the treatment options page. Here the website gives me several options all based on the best medical evidence. I choose uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) as the diagnosis and check the box to send a prescription for an appropriate antibiotic. Hitting the “send” button notifies June that her HealtheVisit has been completed.

Not all HealtheVisits, however, are quite this straight-forward. Many symptoms, while miserable, will not improve if treated with an antibiotic. When this happens, we do our best to suggest ways to relieve symptoms and provide education as to what warning signs indicate the need to be rechecked.

My phone buzzes again and I look at the message, “The HealtheVisit queue is empty.” This online diagnosis and treatment system has helped another patient, and will bring fast, accurate medical care to many more.

To learn more about HealtheVisits, visit affinityhealth.org/healthevisits.