Healthcare services can be difficult for certain sects of the patient population to obtain due to residing in more rural areas or being unable to find transportation to medical facilities. To solve this major issue, telemedicine capabilities offer one answer while one company called Heal actually brings the doctor to the patient. Home visits are the bread and butter of this establishment.
The company Heal brings physicians to a patient’s home or office and offers both diagnostic services and treatment or prescriptions. Currently, the entity is using $5 million of investor funds to expand to Orange County, California and expects to move throughout the state into other markets. Dr. Renee Dua, nephrologist, former chief of medicine, and Heal founder, spoke with EHRIntelligence.com and explained how this company was founded.
“I am a private practice physician. I finished medical school in Chicago and then came out to Los Angeles to complete residency and fellowship,” Dua explained. “I’m a board-certified nephrologist. That was 10 years ago when I finished and back in those days, it took a little guts, but people still started private practices.”
“I did that. I hung my name up on the door and hoped everyday patients would come see me. They certainly did. I’m a woman and I speak Spanish. In Los Angeles, those are attractive qualities to the patient population that might require a nephrologist,” she stated. “I became very busy and that afforded me some unique opportunities.”
“I was chief of medicine at two area hospitals for several years. That gave me perspective on the administrative task of running a hospital and what kind of care or initiatives doctors provide,” Dua continued. “I also maintained a teaching position. The teaching position showed me what doctors are learning and what kind of perspective they’re bringing to their own practice.”
“After about ten years, I got married and started having children. One night, we had to take one of our kids to the emergency room. We were told by an urgent care pediatrician that he had a very high fever, he was very sick, don’t wait – run!” she exclaimed. “We dropped everything and ran over to a local emergency room and waited about eight hours. We finally saw an attending physician who said there’s nothing wrong with your son and you should go home.”
“I was a first-time mother and scared of practicing medicine on my own kid. On the drive back, it was about midnight and I turned to my husband and explained that we’re in the blessed position to drop everything and go sit for eight hours and wait in an ER only to find nothing is wrong. There are people who, if they were to do that, they have no nanny, no support, and could lose their job. We need to create a system to help people take care of themselves and their families in a manner that is more civilized. Therein came the concept for Heal,” she explained.
“My husband is an entrepreneur so he handled the construction of the idea. From my perspective, I’m the chief medical officer, so I handle all things doctor-related,” she stated.
When asked whether the organization has been able to adhere to meaningful use requirements when offering patients home visits, Dua answered, “Interestingly, we are actually adhering to them. We are using EMRs. Each doctor shows up at a visit with a medical assistant. That assistant acts to maintain the office setting at your home or at your desk, brings supplies, and can even act as a scribe for the physician to make sure all requirements are met.”
“In our physical exams, we ask the necessary questions, fill in demographic information that might be relevant, and push smoking cessation,” Dua continued. “We send out a one-page summary after the visit to ensure that the patient or family members understands the plan of care and what occurred during the visit.”
“We’re brand-new so we haven’t attested yet, but this is something that is on our pipeline and in our vision as a private practice provider. All the doctors that I work with have attested. We’re well into the meaningful use realm and it’s something we will be doing to ensure that we maintain a certain quality at Heal,” Dua declared.
Heal also offers prescription delivery services to its patients. When asked whether Heal utilizes electronic prescribing and health IT systems to communicate with pharmacies, Dua responded, “We pride ourselves on being paperless. When you are going into someone’s home, in order to ensure a positive experience and avoid the clumsiness of paper, it’s best to keep everything in one place. It ensures continuity of care in the next visit. If we need to communicate with another doctor, we can transmit information electronically and privately.”
“We use any feature relevant to maintaining security and organization. Electronic prescription would absolutely be one of those,” Dua stated. “We communicate with all of our patients electronically for prescription services. If the patient is interested in delivery, there is a small convenience fee that we will charge to pick up the medication and deliver it for them. This fee will also cover the patient’s copay based on insurance. These things are organized for us via the EMR.”
When asked if patients who use Heal’s home visits services have access to their medical records and are able to utilize a patient portal, Dua answered, “When they get that email with the one-page summary, on that email is a link they can download to have access to their records. In their chart, we’ll have labs and, if we ordered them, their results will be there. They can communicate with us.”
“Let’s suppose my doctor is Dr. Smith and I’ve already scheduled my follow-up visit with patient John in three months. John can communicate with Dr. Smith via that same portal for questions on medication refills and whatnot,” she concluded.
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