Lee Health: Helping you find the right place for the best care
Each year, as Southwest Florida experiences a significant surge in people, highly contagious viruses (flu, RSV and COVID-19) are circulating, too. This combination of spreading illnesses and an influx of people in our community leads to our hospitals seeing more patients, resulting in longer than normal wait times.
The emergency department is not always the most appropriate venue for care, though, so we are sharing this reminder of other options for care, including virtual care like Telehealth and e-Visits. Knowing where to go can help you avoid long wait times, ensuring you get the care you need while also helping to conserve community healthcare resources.
Primary Care Physician Office
Your primary care physician’s office is the foundation of your health and wellness—from general concerns and preventative care to illness, chronic disease treatment, tests and referrals.
Virtual Care
If you are a patient of Lee Physician Group and you have an everyday health concern or illness, or you need a checkup, you can make virtual scheduled appointments through MyChart.
For 24/7 virtual care, Lee TeleHealth is another option for common, non-life-threatening, non-emergency conditions like colds or flu, rashes, pink eye, allergies, or sprains or strains. With Lee Telehealth, you can access care from a board-certified physician via a smartphone, tablet or computer 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Our health system also recently launched Lee TeleHealth e-Visits—a messaging-based telemedicine service. Lee TeleHealth e-Visits require a phone, computer or tablet that can connect to the internet and a MyChart account. Insurance, however, is not required as this is a self-pay-only option ($29 per visit).
Walk-in Urgent Care
If you need quick treatment for minor, non-emergency injuries or illnesses and you cannot wait for an appointment with your primary care provider, Lee Convenient Care or other walk-in clinics or urgent care centers are the best options for care. Lee Convenient Care is perfect if you have a sprain, cut or rash, a cold or the flu, a urinary tract infection or even a broken bone (as long as the bone has not come through the skin). To find a Lee Convenient Care location, go to LeeHealth.org/find-urgent-care. In addition to the office’s contact information, you can see the wait times. Once you find the location of your choice, you can click on it and let our staff know you’re coming with the “I’m on my way” button.
In-Home Urgent Care – DispatchHealth
DispatchHealth is in-home urgent care available between 8 a.m.-10 p.m., seven days a week. With this option, you can request an appointment without a referral by visiting www.DispatchHealth.com. All you do is explain your symptoms, provide some details about your illness or injury and note the name of your primary care provider. The DispatchHealth onboarding team will confirm it is not an emergency and that it is safe to treat your medical condition at home. Then, within a few hours, the medical team will arrive ready to treat you in the privacy and comfort of your home.
Emergency Departments (EDs)
When time is critical, the EDs are the most appropriate venue for care for severe or life-threatening issues, like a heart attack or stroke, broken bones where the bone is protruding through the skin, and for patients having chest or abdominal pain or trouble breathing. Because patients are triaged, meaning cases are prioritized with the most severe conditions treated first, wait times vary greatly in the ED.
911
Calling 911 for emergency medical assistance should also be limited to serious emergencies, such as persistent chest pain or trouble breathing, uncontrolled bleeding, fainting or unresponsiveness, drowning or near-drowning, poisoning or severe allergic reaction, seizure, sudden slurred speech or numbness (could be signs of a stroke) or suicidal or homicidal thoughts.
It is important to note that calling 911 does not guarantee you will be seen in the ED faster. All patients, regardless of how they arrive at the hospital, are triaged to provide the safest care.
One more way Lee Health aims to help our patients determine the best venue for care—whether in-person, virtual (e-Visits and scheduled or on-demand TeleHealth video visits), urgent or emergency care, is our online symptom checker. Patients can click on ‘Get Care’ on the homepage of LeeHealth.org and look through a list of common symptoms and conditions, or they can use the symptom checker to review more than 130 symptoms to help guide them to the most appropriate venue for care.
Lee Health is here and ready to care for and serve you. We share this insight into the various venues for care with the hope that you know where to go for the right care at the right place so you can save time and money.
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Larry Antonucci, M.D., MBA is the president & CEO of Lee Health, Southwest Florida’s major destination for health care offering acute care, emergency care, rehabilitation and diagnostic services, health and wellness education, and community outreach and advocacy programs. Visit LeeHealth.org to learn more.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Lee Health: Helping you find the right place for the best care
