Urgent Care for Kids, a pediatric urgent care chain in Texas, has long provided telemedicine for patients through its Virtual Care for Kids team. This team announced its new offerings March 19 to help families avoid exposure to coronavirus in medical facilities, said Melissa Bauman, the urgent care chain’s senior vice president of telemedicine.
“We were ready; we’ve been doing this for so long,” Bauman said.
While the Virtual Care for Kids team is seeing an influx of telemedicine visits, pediatric patients ages 0-21 can expect to wait less than a minute to see a pediatrician or pediatric provider, Bauman said.
“We’re extremely staffed to be equipped for this,” she said.
Bauman said much of the telemedicine visit volumes are due to coronavirus concerns from parents. It is why Virtual Care for Kids started providing virtual prescreenings for the virus so children and their families do not risk exposure in an emergency room.
To reach as many patients as possible, Virtual Care for Kids is waiving all copay fees regardless of insurance, Bauman said. Those without insurance will be “heavily” discounted, she said.
“We understand this is an alarming time for people,” Bauman said. “We don’t want the socioeconomic status of family to prevent them from receiving the medical care they need.”
Virtual visits are accessible on any smartphone, tablet or computer between 9 a.m.-9 p.m. every day of the week.
For more information, visit https://urgentcarekids.com/pediatric-telemedicine-for-kids.
