Three Essential Steps to Prepare Your Hurricane Telemedicine Plan

Hurricane season is upon us, and building emergency plans for your family’s health care - in case of disaster - can help keep you and your loved ones safe. In 2017, many Americans affected by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey found that they had a new asset in their toolbox: the ability to connect with a physician through telemedicine to get help. Thousands of patients connected with urgent care physicians through their mobile phones or on their computers, to have health issues, from breathing problems to rashes, checked out by board certified physicians. If you ever run into an issue reaching your regular place of health care, or you don’t feel safe leaving your home to be checked out, telemedicine could be a fast and convenient way to have a visit.

As with any toolkit, proper preparation is essential to making sure that you are ready if the need arises. As a pediatrician who practices telemedicine, I compiled a simple 3-step checklist for how to build and use your digital health emergency toolkit:

1. Talk to your insurance plan to see which telemedicine services are covered. Many insurance plans have specific services which are covered at low or no cost to their members. Calling your insurance plan now will mean that you are prepared with the most updated information on the services that are available to you.
2. Download and enroll in a telemedicine program. Many telemedicine programs work best if you download an app to your phone and enroll before your visit (or enroll online through a website). Enrolling should not cost anything, and will save time and effort later if you do end up doing a telemedicine visit.
3. Understand when a telemedicine urgent care visit is appropriate. During a major disaster, it can take emergency personnel (like EMS, firefighters or police) many hours to reach you. If you are unable to leave your home or have a health care concern, and you are able to connect with a telemedicine platform, you may have quicker success seeing a provider online. The health care professionals online will able able to guide you either through home care or to the most appropriate level of care, once travel restrictions are lifted.

In the days after a major disaster, local health care clinics may be closed or have long lines or you may have evacuated to an unfamiliar city and you don’t know who to turn to with health care questions. Telemedicine urgent care can help with many common urgent care conditions, including:

• Bridge refills: many telemedicine companies can see the list of prescriptions that you have picked up recently. If you don’t have enough of a medication you take every day and can’t reach the doctor who prescribed it for you, we can help give you a few days of the prescription, so you can stay healthy.
• Rashes: Rashes can come from an infection or because your skin is red from touching an irritant or something that you are allergic to. A telemedicine doctor can help decide what caused the rash, and either give you medications to help, or tell you if you need to see someone in person.
• Trouble breathing: Whether from asthma or from a cold, breathing problems can be very scary. A telemedicine physician can talk to you about any breathing problems you’ve had before, look at you to see the severity of your current breathing problems, and recommend a plan of action with either home care and medications, or seeing a physician in-person.

Although hurricanes can be frightening and disruptive, knowing that you have the ability to reach board certified physicians wherever you have internet access can make getting high-quality health care much easier and less daunting - even while living through and recovering after a hurricane.

Sylvia Romm, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and VP of Medical Affairs at American Well. She lives with her family in New York City.