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Tips for a Successful Virtual Visit
Victoria Rodino shares insight for parents on having a successful and easy virtual visit.
Featured Speaker:
Victoria Rodino
Victoria Rodino is the Director of TeleHealth Operations at Children’s Health. She is focused on the continual improvement of the quality of Children’s Virtual program’s operations and services. In 2016, Victoria implemented Children’s first Direct to Consumer Urgent Care Virtual Health service. In 2017, she implemented the first pediatric remote patient monitoring program focused on digitized medication compliance in the US. In the following 4 years, she expanded the remote patient monitoring program to focus on six various disciplines, monitoring almost 250 patients a month, and the Virtual Visit program to include a Behavioral Direct-to-Consumer service offering, School TeleBehavioral Health program within almost 70 school sites, and onboarded 15 unique clinical service line virtual clinics. In the wake of COVDI19, within 8 weeks Victoria onboarded 50 unique clinics and almost 1,000 providers to continue to facilitate virtual access to care for patients. Victoria has presented on the benefits of Virtual Health at national and international conferences. She has worked for Children’s Health for six years, has 20 years of health care experience and, is currently completing her Ph.D. in Industrial Organizational Psychology. Transcription:
Caitlin Whyte: You're listening to Children's Health Checkup. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. And today we're talking tips on how to have a successful virtual visit. What can be diagnosed through a virtual visit? How do they work? Joining us is our expert, Victoria Rodino, Director of Virtual Health at Children's Health. Victoria, let's start with the basics. What exactly are virtual visits?
Victoria Rodino: So virtual visits are really a way that Children's Health has enabled access to care for our patients outside of that traditional brick and mortar clinic settings. So the virtual visit app that we have allows our patients to connect with providers over mobile or web devices. You know, many different modalities and our patients can input health information over that. They can upload images, they can send secure messages to their providers, receive after visit summaries, much like they do with a clinic setting and they can even download and or forward that information to their primary care physician. So it's really just a different way to continue to offer care. But just through a telemedicine visit versus a clinic visit
Host: Now, are virtual visits available for all patients?
Victoria Rodino: Absolutely. So Children's Virtual visit offers direct to consumer urgent care and behavioral health care visits that are available to everyone. And we've also on boarded over 50 different unique clinics within our hospital system to facilitate access to care to our existing and even to our new patients that are establishing with our clinics, especially in the wake of COVID-19. And so we've also been working on and have published banish guides and videos for our Spanish speaking families, which are available on our childrens.com website. So any patient can go to that external website and just click on treatment and then virtual visit and they can see all of those guides there.
Host: What can a provider diagnose through a virtual visit?
Victoria Rodino: So for our urgent care practice, our providers really do see everything from allergies, sinusitis, colds, flu brushes, pink guy, you know, other conditions such as that. Our behavioral health care practice our providers can see patients for anxiety, depression, addiction therapy, and education. They even do referrals to medical detox facilities. They offer drug counseling, med management. And then our service lines that we've on boarded see their clinics for follow-ups on existing diagnoses that they have with those patients. So it's a really kind of a broad spectrum of, of things that we can diagnose and treat patients for over the platform.
Host: It sounds like these virtual visits with Children's Health are pretty easy. Can you explain to parents how they work?
Victoria Rodino: Of course. So depending on how the patient or parent is accessing it will determine how they log in. So as a parent is using it for the first time let's say for an urgent care or behavioral health care visit, they will just go ahead and download in the app store, the children's virtual visit app, the Android or iPhone create their account using their email. Parents have the ability to add children 17 and under to their account on the app as well to be seen as a dependent. And then once they're logged in, they can click on whichever practice they want to see a provider. So our urgent care practice or our behavioral healthcare practice. So if it's urgent care, they'll select a provider for an immediate visit. If it's for behavioral health, they can self schedule their own appointments so they can either choose a day that's convenient for them or for their child and schedule a visit there.
Or they can select a specific provider that they may want to see what our specific provider type and then they can schedule themselves with that provider. For our patients or parents who are logging in with one of our service line clinics, our clinics are actually working to register the patients on the platform and then schedule the visits for them. So really the parent just has to go to their email, find the appointment link that our clinic sent to them, click get started, create their password and log in that way. Then there's a little calendar icon that they can open up and see their appointment right away. You know, another easy way for parents to see all of those options is if they go to that childrens.com/virtualvisit external website. It shows them exactly how to download, how to login, how to access their appointment. We have, you know, quick little videos that they can watch and we have guides as well that kind of walks them through that process. So it's very simple, you know, to log in and access appointments.
Host: I'm sure doing this with children can be tricky though. Can you share some tips for parents on how they can have a successful virtual visit?
Victoria Rodino: Absolutely. So one really important tip for parents with a scheduled visit is just ensure that they do log in to their account before the time of the appointment. Another important tip is to just ensure that however they are connecting whether on their Android or iPhone, iPad, tablet, computer, that they have a working camera, a microphone that their speakers are working, and they also want to ensure that, you know, depending on whether they're connecting over Wi-Fi or cellular, that they do have a good connection for that video, just like we would do with FaceTime. And so making sure that they're connecting near the internet or that they have signal for the visit because obviously it is over, it is over their phone or their or their computer device. And the app also has a test my computer option. So if they're logging in on a computer, they just click test my computer and it'll go through all the tests for them. It'll make sure their cameras working, their microphone is working and that their, that their speakers are picking up sound, and then before every single visit, if they're connecting that way, the platform automatically tests that for the patient as well, I think, which is really helpful for the parents.
Host: Thank you for your time and for these tips, Victoria. That was Victoria Rodino, director virtual health at Children's Health. Find more information on these types of visits online at childrens.com/virtualvisit. This has been Children's Health Checkup. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Thank you for listening.
Caitlin Whyte: You're listening to Children's Health Checkup. I'm your host, Caitlin Whyte. And today we're talking tips on how to have a successful virtual visit. What can be diagnosed through a virtual visit? How do they work? Joining us is our expert, Victoria Rodino, Director of Virtual Health at Children's Health. Victoria, let's start with the basics. What exactly are virtual visits?
Victoria Rodino: So virtual visits are really a way that Children's Health has enabled access to care for our patients outside of that traditional brick and mortar clinic settings. So the virtual visit app that we have allows our patients to connect with providers over mobile or web devices. You know, many different modalities and our patients can input health information over that. They can upload images, they can send secure messages to their providers, receive after visit summaries, much like they do with a clinic setting and they can even download and or forward that information to their primary care physician. So it's really just a different way to continue to offer care. But just through a telemedicine visit versus a clinic visit
Host: Now, are virtual visits available for all patients?
Victoria Rodino: Absolutely. So Children's Virtual visit offers direct to consumer urgent care and behavioral health care visits that are available to everyone. And we've also on boarded over 50 different unique clinics within our hospital system to facilitate access to care to our existing and even to our new patients that are establishing with our clinics, especially in the wake of COVID-19. And so we've also been working on and have published banish guides and videos for our Spanish speaking families, which are available on our childrens.com website. So any patient can go to that external website and just click on treatment and then virtual visit and they can see all of those guides there.
Host: What can a provider diagnose through a virtual visit?
Victoria Rodino: So for our urgent care practice, our providers really do see everything from allergies, sinusitis, colds, flu brushes, pink guy, you know, other conditions such as that. Our behavioral health care practice our providers can see patients for anxiety, depression, addiction therapy, and education. They even do referrals to medical detox facilities. They offer drug counseling, med management. And then our service lines that we've on boarded see their clinics for follow-ups on existing diagnoses that they have with those patients. So it's a really kind of a broad spectrum of, of things that we can diagnose and treat patients for over the platform.
Host: It sounds like these virtual visits with Children's Health are pretty easy. Can you explain to parents how they work?
Victoria Rodino: Of course. So depending on how the patient or parent is accessing it will determine how they log in. So as a parent is using it for the first time let's say for an urgent care or behavioral health care visit, they will just go ahead and download in the app store, the children's virtual visit app, the Android or iPhone create their account using their email. Parents have the ability to add children 17 and under to their account on the app as well to be seen as a dependent. And then once they're logged in, they can click on whichever practice they want to see a provider. So our urgent care practice or our behavioral healthcare practice. So if it's urgent care, they'll select a provider for an immediate visit. If it's for behavioral health, they can self schedule their own appointments so they can either choose a day that's convenient for them or for their child and schedule a visit there.
Or they can select a specific provider that they may want to see what our specific provider type and then they can schedule themselves with that provider. For our patients or parents who are logging in with one of our service line clinics, our clinics are actually working to register the patients on the platform and then schedule the visits for them. So really the parent just has to go to their email, find the appointment link that our clinic sent to them, click get started, create their password and log in that way. Then there's a little calendar icon that they can open up and see their appointment right away. You know, another easy way for parents to see all of those options is if they go to that childrens.com/virtualvisit external website. It shows them exactly how to download, how to login, how to access their appointment. We have, you know, quick little videos that they can watch and we have guides as well that kind of walks them through that process. So it's very simple, you know, to log in and access appointments.
Host: I'm sure doing this with children can be tricky though. Can you share some tips for parents on how they can have a successful virtual visit?
Victoria Rodino: Absolutely. So one really important tip for parents with a scheduled visit is just ensure that they do log in to their account before the time of the appointment. Another important tip is to just ensure that however they are connecting whether on their Android or iPhone, iPad, tablet, computer, that they have a working camera, a microphone that their speakers are working, and they also want to ensure that, you know, depending on whether they're connecting over Wi-Fi or cellular, that they do have a good connection for that video, just like we would do with FaceTime. And so making sure that they're connecting near the internet or that they have signal for the visit because obviously it is over, it is over their phone or their or their computer device. And the app also has a test my computer option. So if they're logging in on a computer, they just click test my computer and it'll go through all the tests for them. It'll make sure their cameras working, their microphone is working and that their, that their speakers are picking up sound, and then before every single visit, if they're connecting that way, the platform automatically tests that for the patient as well, I think, which is really helpful for the parents.
Host: Thank you for your time and for these tips, Victoria. That was Victoria Rodino, director virtual health at Children's Health. Find more information on these types of visits online at childrens.com/virtualvisit. This has been Children's Health Checkup. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Thank you for listening.