Has the Coronavirus Crisis Increased the Need for Virtual Consultations?2 min

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has created negative consequences throughout the world ever since the outbreak began. Even developed countries have realized that their healthcare infrastructure is not equipped to deal with this mass crisis. There is a wide gap between healthcare providers and patients who have been affected by the coronavirus. It is an uphill battle to handle the number of patients that healthcare facilities are getting on a daily basis. Therefore, the best way to relieve hospital and care centres of this influx of patients is through teleconsultations or virtual consultations. Virtual care has been embraced by both patients and healthcare providers because it has the ability to meet current healthcare needs.

Health insurance companies in the United States have agreed to process the reimbursements for virtual COVID-19 consultations. In Los Angeles, Dentulu has been providing virtual dental consultation services to deal with this ongoing crisis. Every day, Dentulu is seeing an increased number of teleconsultations between dentists and patients on their platform. Earlier, the growth of telemedicine and virtual consultation was increasing at a slower rate. Now, its growth has increased explosively due to the current social distancing measures. There are numerous advantages associated with using Dentulu enabled virtual consultations, such as:

• Ensuring access to healthcare services that may be otherwise difficult to get in the present crisis
• Minimizing the amount of patients physically visiting clinics and hospitals
• Virtually diagnosing illnesses arising from the coronavirus
• Monitoring virtual treatment
• Reviewing the health status of quarantined patients
• Evaluating patients remotely
• Enhancing patient’s safety as they are treated virtually from their homes
• Administering self-diagnostic questionnaires

Virtual consultations address the divide between urban and rural healthcare facilities. Now, anybody can connect with the dentists registered with Dentulu if they want to seek virtual dental care. Dentulu follows all guidelines that are related to clinical standards, protocols, and provision of care with technologies as outlined by the ADA. As of now, many registered dental practitioners are using teledentistry to deliver dental care services.

Additionally, there are other beneficial features of virtual consultations, such as:

• Ease of patient management and treatment
• Informed consent before delivery of service
• Continuity of care
• Streamlined referrals for emergency health/dental care services
• Generation of automated medical records
• E-prescriptions
• Reimbursement claims
• Enhanced relationship between patient and physician, etc.

As per the guidelines set by the ADA, virtual consultations can be used in five scenarios:

• A patient communicating with a registered medical practitioner/dentist
• A caregiver communicating with a registered medical practitioner
• A registered medical practitioner communicating with a specialist
• Paramedical staff communicating with a registered medical practitioner
• Emergency healthcare needs

As you are aware, the health care system in America is characterized as high cost. For some, getting care is largely unaffordable. The best option for getting healthcare services are virtual consultations because the patient can get treatment at a low cost without any compromise on the quality of care.