New York and New Jersey Residents – Access to Telemedicine with Swift MD

The service states that you are usually connected to a physician within 30 minutes of either a phone call or logging on to the computer to setup a consultation. Charges are $59.00 for a consult. You do need to establish an account before using the service. It requires that you fill out on online health record which is stored and referenced for physicians accessing your files. If you are outside of New York and New Jersey, you can sign up to be placed on a waiting list for when the service becomes available in your area.

In addition, prescriptions can be done from the service and they use Sure Scripts to check your existing medications against a potential allergic reaction, etc. on a drug to be administered. Prescriptions can be emailed, faxed or phoned to a local pharmacy, or ordered from an Internet pharmacy for overnight delivery.The service is 24/7 and can be reached anywhere within the US for members. Additional plans in 2009 are to offer a SwiftClinic health station at places of employment and of course they will be promoting wellness as does every other organization promoting better health care.

“Two-way video enabled face-to-face consultations, while health monitoring instruments send temperature, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, EKG and other medical readings to physicians. A SwiftClinic health station in your workplace:

Encourages employees to participate fully in wellness programs
Keeps employees on the job and productive by making care convenient
Promotes routine healthcare and early treatment of minor illnesses
Speeds the completion of incident reports for workers’ compensation claims “

According to the article, many insurance companies are beginning to accept such plans. The company shares information with SwiftMD doctors and other providers. You do need to be between the ages of 3 and 69 to enroll and participate.

I would also see this an opportunity for the company to sign up with Personal Health Record companies such as HealthVault and Google Health to transmit health records, the electronic medical record (EMR) is designed according to the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) standard.

On the subject of labs….

“ SwiftMD has contracted with leaders in the medical industry — Quest and Labcorp. Combined, these two labs offer thousands of locations nationwide. Should you need lab tests, your SwiftMD doctor will order them, and you’ll be directed to the Quest or Labcorp facility nearest you. Test results are sent electronically to SwiftMD, and you will receive notification in your member portal, or a SwiftMD provider will call you to discuss the results.”

So you can also be referred to a local lab facility via a consult. So once again would mention that this appears to be another prospective vendor for Personal Health Records Integration as they are already set up with standards to submit information to physician and hospital EHR (electronic medical records systems). Quest is already set up to work with Google Health and I’m sure there’s more in the works with LabCorp and HealthVault in this area to arrive shortly. If you have your information online with Swift Health, it makes perfect sense to have the ability to transmit and share to a Personal Health Record.

Medicine as we know it today is changing rapidly, not only the science, but also at the level of care through documentation and more efficient and better planning use with technology. BD

SwiftMD isn’t just better telemedicine. It’s better medicine. We are highly selective about the quality of our physicians. Calls are returned quickly, usually within 30 minutes, any time of the day or night. We employ a powerful, personal health e-record that is secure, HIPAA- compliant and keeps you informed about the care you receive. And we do it all at a remarkably affordable price.

Some of the conditions we routinely treat:

Allergies and rashes
Arthritis pain
Back pain or injury
Bone or joint pain, strain or injury:
- Ankle
- Elbow
- Foot
- Hand
- Knee
- Shoulder
- Wrist
Earache
Eye problems, conjunctivitis or pink eye
Fever
Headache
Insomnia
Nasal or respiratory congestion or sinusitis
Obesity consultation
Prescription refills