Fortis rolls out e-consultations for remote patient care

Team L&M

As the country continues with Covid-19 lockdown, Fortis Healthcare has rolled out online consultations for patients in 23 hospitals across the network in India. The step was conceived to continue patient care services without risking the health of patients or doctors. Both tele-consults as well as video consult services have been running successfully with encouraging response from patients.

Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, Managing Director & CEO, Fortis Healthcare said, “E-consultations are being organized to ensure the continuity of care for post-surgical upcountry patients. For example, a patient from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar who has undergone a CABG can follow up with their surgeon to confirm that all recovery milestones are being met. Patients who have a disease which requires periodic monitoring (for example – a senior citizen with diabetes and/or hypertension) can share the values with his doctor via an e-consult and discuss if the parameters are okay. Expectant mothers can share their general health progress with their obstetrician, restricting in-hospital visits to single digits to protect against COVID 19 and possible transmission to the foetus.”

Till date, over 8,000 consults have taken place via the e-consulting medium. The online consults take place during the regular OPD hours at normal OPD rates. The doctors from specialties like neurology, gynaecology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, orthopaedics, neurosurgery, paediatrics, nephrology, ENT, mental health and internal medicine are providing online consultations as of now.

Fortis is offering telemedicine or video consults where patients are unable to visit the hospital. However, emergency cases and where clinicians feel the necessity to physically examine the patient are not given consultation via telemedicine. A video or telemedicine consult can never be compared to a normal in-hospital consult where the doctor is able to physically examine the patient. Some of beneficiary patients of e-consults are those who need continuity of care post-surgical residing far from the hospitals, patients with chronic disease management with a requirement of periodic monitoring as well as pregnant ladies for minimum exposure to a vulnerable external environment.

A patient can call the hospital board line, visit the website or use my Fortis application to request a call-back. Then a link is shared with the appointment time and preferred mode of interaction (video or telephone). SMS and WhatsApp’s have also been shared with the patient database to help them book a tele or video consults via the link – https://bit.ly/2Xw66xC