If you’ve got a serious ongoing medical issue and if you’re in serious pain, you might not feel like taking a ride to the hospital or visit your primary doctor or a 24 hour urgent care, especially if you live a little ways out of town.
Do you wish you could see an online doctor? Do you wish you could see your doctor online? Fortunately, there’s a way you can do just that. Think of all the things you’re now able to do from the convenience of a phone, a tablet or a laptop. Now you can add medicine to the list.
In the last several years, telemedicine has grown in popularity as a way for people to receive convenient medical care. A recent study indicated that at least 52% of respondents were willing to use virtual healthcare in order to see their provider. What’s more, the telemedicine or virtual doctor/online doctor industry projects to be worth more than $36 billion by 2020.
If you’re a little older, you’re probably thinking, “Why wouldn’t I just go to the doctor’s office?” But let’s face it, doctors get swamped. It’s estimated that a general physician in the U.S. gets more than 3,500 visits a year and specialists receive about 2,700 visits. That might seem like a lot, but doctors can’t give all their patients equal time. As it is, they spent about 13-16 minutes with each person.
That’s where telemedicine and talking to an online doctor comes in. When it comes to getting convenient medical care, telemedicine offers several advantages including:
- No waiting for appointments: When you or a family member gets sick, you know the drill: calling to make an appointment, taking time out of your schedule to go the appointment, waiting a long time in the doctor’s office, etc.
One way that telemedicine offers convenient medical care is that you don’t have to take time off of work anymore. Instead, you can schedule virtual appointments with your doctor for times that work better for your schedule. As an added bonus, you can have your teleconference in a private and you can get the help you need to cure your ills a lot faster. This saves you from having to be embarrassed to share important information in front of people or trying to cram in a doctors visit on a lunch break. - Options: One of the best ways telemedicine offers convenient medical care is by offering on-demand options for various illnesses and aliments. Let’s say you need a Z pack for a bout of bronchitis. If you can’t get in to a doctor’s office, many insurance companies cover on-demand medical care and there are several on-demand options are available on the market for things like a cold and allergies.
- Staying healthy: Another big benefit of telemedicine is that you stay healthier. It seems like anytime you visit a doctor’s office, there’s all sorts of coughing and sneezing going on and you’ve probably felt uncomfortable. Rather than dealing with an unhealthy environment, you can have an online consultation with an online doctor and stay healthier in the process.
- No need for child care: Another benefit of telemedicine is you don’t have to worry about arranging care for your children or elderly relatives. Telemedicine eliminates that stress by allowing you to have a conversation with an online doctor right at home.
- Talking with specialists: If you need to see a specialist for a specific medical problem, telemedicine offers the chance to talk to a reputable specialist without having to travel hours and hours for a visit. You can consult with local specialists or national renowned specialists about your problem rather than being limited to who you can see based on where you live.
Dealing with medical issues, whether yours or a loved one’s can be a stressful thing to deal with and one of the advantages of telemedicine is that it helps eliminate stress and make things a lot easier. Instead of spending time in doctors offices, you can get the on-demand care you need for your medical issues from places that work for you and at times that work for your schedule with an experienced online doctor.
