Memphis, Tenn.-based Baptist Memorial Hospital is urging patients with flu symptoms to stay home and seek medical care through its telemedicine service, according to a Jan. 27 WMC report.
Baptist Memorial patients can fill out an online questionnaire through the hospital's My Chart patient portal to find out if their symptoms match those of the flu. If the patient would like to have a virtual appointment, they can do so directly through My Chart.
"Why should you have to go to a minor emergency clinic or even the emergency room, sit there for six hours behind everyone else who has the flu to get your prescription when you can do it all electronically?" said William Light, MD, an internal medicine physician at Baptist Memorial Group.
Baptist Memorial also implemented a new policy in lieu of the coronavirus. Emergency Room staff are now required to ask patients if they have recently returned from China, where the virus originated, or if they have been in contact with someone in the area. Staff are also asking patients if they have flu symptoms. If any patients say yes, the hospital will remove them from the general population to prevent spread of infection, according to the report.