Olympia (Wash.) Orthopaedic Associates used telemedicine to help a quarantined patient recover from knee surgery, practice representative Nikolai Hammer told Thurston Talk.
Three things to know:
1. The practice used its virtual care platform to care for an 80-year-old patient who was experiencing knee pain and swelling a few weeks after joint replacement surgery, according to Mr. Hammer, OOA's brand marketing manager.
2. An OOA physician guided the patient through downloading and launching the telemedicine app on her smartphone. The physician's medical advice helped get the patient's recovery back on track.
3. The practice is utilizing telemedicine to maintain community healthcare access and to help reduce the burden on healthcare systems handling high volumes of COVID-19 patients, Mr. Hammer told Thurston Talk.
"We are not only trying to bring access to our community through telemedicine, but we also want to help relieve stress on our local healthcare systems, specifically emergency rooms," he said. "It's a top priority of ours to come together as a community and make sure that we are able to serve our community while also relieving our doctors on the front line."