How to Have a Productive Video Visit with Your Child’s Provider
Published on in Health Tip of the Week
Published on in Health Tip of the Week
The use of telehealth services such as video visits is booming during this time of “stay at home” rules to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). When deemed appropriate, video visits can be used to perform a virtual doctor’s appointment using a secure video connection.
At Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), a significant percentage of scheduled in-person visits have been transformed to video visits, and in the process, we have gotten insights into what makes them work best. If your child is scheduled for a video visit, here we tackle a few common questions from parents and offer some tips to make it the most productive it can be.
You may be skeptical that a video visit can accomplish what is typically covered in your child’s trip to the doctor. While there are some types of visits that definitely work better in person, for the most part you can expect a virtual visit to be very much like an in-person visit.
Paul Ufberg, DO, MBA, an attending physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, emphasizes that much of what a provider does can be done via video more effectively than you might think: “You will be surprised at how much the visit feels like an in-person experience!”
Over video, a provider can hear breathing, coughing and congestion. They can look in your child’s throat. They can see injuries and distress. And they can use you, the parent, to do things like feel the child’s abdomen looking for areas of tenderness or pain.
Reminder: Please check with your health plan to confirm that your insurance covers video visits with your own CHOP providers!
Want to see what a video visit looks like? Watch a MyChop Video Visit demo and get step-by-step instructions in the MyCHOP Video Visit tip sheet.
Contributed by: Paul Ufberg, DO, MBA, and Kate Fuller