Virtual care offers a convenient way to connect with doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants for non-emergency medical conditions such as a cough, sore throat, fever or rash. Most health insurance plans cover these telehealth visits.
Your telehealth visit can take place from the comfort of your home or wherever you are at a time that works for you. Our doctors and nurse practitioners can treat non-emergency medical issues such as a cold, flu, earache, stomach ache or sore throat. They can even prescribe medication, and your prescription will be sent to your local pharmacy, if needed. Contact JetMED Salt Lake City -Virtual Urgent Care SLC for professional help.
You can use a smartphone, tablet or computer with a camera and Wi-Fi connection to connect to your visit. Download the NYP Connect app on your smartphone or PC and enter the virtual waiting room when you’re ready for your appointment. (If you’re a new patient, you may have to verify your identity with the system before checking in for your visit.)
After you check in, you’ll be prompted to select an available telehealth provider from the list. During the visit, you’ll talk with your provider about your symptoms and ask questions. Our providers will make a diagnosis and recommend treatment, or refer you to a specialist if necessary. Your visit will be recorded and saved to your MyChart account, so the doctor can review the video of your visit, any documents you send and your follow-up instructions.
Our physicians are board-certified at Columbia or Weill Cornell and trained in the best practices of telemedicine. They can help with many medical concerns but should not be used to replace emergency care for life-threatening situations, such as chest pain, significant bleeding or stroke, or routine in-person appointments with your primary care physician.
Virtual urgent care is free for patients with a MyChart account and a health insurance plan that includes telemedicine benefits. Other costs may apply, such as a co-pay or deductible. For more information about costs and coverage, contact your health insurance provider.
Why Choose NYP Virtual Urgent Care?
For patients with non-life threatening symptoms, NYP Virtual Urgent Care provides real-time telehealth access to an adult or pediatric Emergency Medicine physician from Weill Cornell or Columbia via video conference on your smartphone, tablet or computer seven days a week from 8 AM to Midnight. The virtual visit can include diagnosis, treatment or referral and prescriptions sent to your pharmacy.
This is just the latest of a number of digital health services that have been added to NewYork-Presbyterian’s suite called NYP OnDemand. Previous offerings included Second Opinion, Adult Online Urgent Care and a collaboration with American Well called Virtual Visits.
The system told MobiHealthNews earlier this year that it would be adding other tools to the suite — including second opinions, in-hospital digital consultations and post-ED follow ups — over time. Unlike many of the “doc-in-a-box” telehealth services offered by American Well and other vendors, these NYP-branded offerings allow patients to remain within their provider network and receive continuity of care that is linked to the patient’s chart.
In the weeks leading up to the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, NewYork-Presbyterian used its telehealth platforms to ease pressure on hospital emergency departments, which saw patient volume increase 20-fold during the pandemic. To help with the influx, the system redeployed physicians from other areas of the hospital and staffed the VUC program with nurses, advance practice providers and physicians.
At its peak, the Virtual Urgent Care (VUC) program handled more than 300 calls per day, with most callers reporting viral symptoms and seeking guidance for managing their COVID-19-related concerns at home. In addition to its VUC program, NYP used its telehealth infrastructure to deliver a host of other innovative telemedicine services, including the eVisit telemedicine platform for in-home health monitoring and the Digital Emergency and Urgent Care service for patients unable to get in-person appointments.
To continue to address the need for patient access, the system is launching two new virtual urgent care services in partnership with telehealth vendor American Well. The services are designed to be more convenient than existing telehealth options, which require patients to download and install additional software to use their phones or tablets for the visit. These new online offerings will be available to all current Sharp members and are scheduled to go live this fall.
How It Works
Virtual care is used to discuss non-life threatening symptoms with a medical professional, avoiding expensive and time-consuming trips to a hospital emergency room. It’s easy to use and accessible from any computer, tablet, or mobile device. To get started, sign up online or in the Oscar app and make sure you have a good internet connection and a device with a camera. You’ll need to provide a list of current medications, a description of your symptoms, and any questions you may have. Visits are typically 15 minutes.
Although telehealth and virtual visits are becoming more common, there is great variability in the quality of these encounters, especially when VUC physicians have limited or no experience with this modality. While previous studies have captured this variability by conducting covert audits of virtual care platforms using secret standardized patients (SPs), there is a clear need for just-in-time experiential training that can be applied on an ongoing basis to not only detect imperfections, but also to train and elevate the quality of VUC physician clinical skills.
To address this need, we have developed and validated a workplace-based simulation program that uses standardized announced encounters to simultaneously assess and onboard VUC physicians to the virtual clinical environment. These simulated encounters mimic the real-life demands of a patient-centered telehealth appointment. The program also provides real-time structured feedback on VUC physician performance from SPs.
During a Virtual Urgent Care appointment, you will be able to meet with a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician through video conference on your smartphone or computer. The service is available for adults and children, seven days a week, through the MyMountSinai app. After a brief check-in, you will enter the virtual waiting room and wait to be connected to a healthcare provider. You will be able to ask the doctor any questions you have, and the visit can include outpatient blood tests or X-rays if necessary. After your visit, the results and discharge instructions will be shared via the MyMountSinai patient portal. You can access the MyMountSinai application through your smartphone’s app store or by clicking the link below.
Preparing for Your Visit
Virtual urgent care visits can help relieve symptoms of common illnesses and injuries such as a sore throat, cold, sinus infection or bladder infection. In addition, doctors can help patients make treatment decisions by examining them over video.
Before your visit, familiarize yourself with the technology so that communication between you and your doctor is clear. You should also prepare any questions or documents that may be relevant to your visit. Finally, choose a quiet, well-lit space where you can stay undisturbed for your appointment.
During your visit, it’s important to take your time and be honest. Your provider should listen to you and respect your preferences. For example, if you prefer to be called by a specific name or pronoun, let your doctor know. They can also ask you about your symptoms, family history and other health concerns. They can then use their training and experience to diagnose your condition. They can recommend the most effective medications or treatments to alleviate your symptoms.
In some cases, your doctor may recommend a follow-up in-person visit to confirm their diagnosis or treatment plan. In that case, you can schedule an appointment at your local NewYork-Presbyterian Urgent Care location.
The days of driving to the doctor’s office, sitting in a waiting room and rushing back home are over. With the convenience of telehealth, it’s easy to see a UH provider from the comfort of your home or anywhere you have a smartphone, tablet or computer with high-speed internet.
During the pandemic, virtual urgent care is an excellent option to avoid the congestion and crowds of a traditional walk-in clinic. It’s also convenient for anyone who isn’t facing an emergency, but needs a medical evaluation and advice more quickly than they can get in to their primary care physician. While virtual visits are not meant to replace your in-person doctor’s visit or a trip to an ED, they can help provide support in between appointments and when your primary care physician is busy. The same rules apply for virtual visits that you would expect to experience in an emergency, so be sure to seek help if you’re experiencing chest pain or severe breathing problems.