Our patients can truly receive care, anywhere, thanks to our telehealth program, which just celebrated its first anniversary. We launched telehealth in late March 2020, just days after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the state to institute stay-at-home orders in California. Since then, 15,000+ people have received care at Planned Parenthood through their phone or computer.
“It is so convenient for patients,” said Vanessa Hurless, the lead clinician for telehealth at Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest. “Now patients don’t need to take time off work, find child care, or figure out transportation to a health center, which can often be far away because we serve so many rural areas.”
Hurless said that telehealth at Planned Parenthood is the only option for many of our patients, who would go without care if this service weren’t available.
For about half of our patients, their entire appointment for birth control, emergency contraception, UTI symptoms, and vaginitis is completed during the telehealth visit. The other half of patients require a follow-up in-person visit to a health center for an exam for abnormal vaginal bleeding or pelvic pain, or to provide a specimen for STI testing, PrEP, and other services.
“We can often fit in a patient quickly with a telehealth appointment, learn more about the care they need, and get them into a health center quickly when their symptoms can’t wait,” Hurless said. “Telehealth definitely keeps patients out of the emergency rooms.”
Patients seeking gender-affirming hormone therapy have been extremely pleased with getting care through telehealth because they don’t have to face the stigma they so often face when getting health care elsewhere, according to Associate Medical Director Kyle Bukowski.
“It’s awesome because it’s super comfortable for a lot of trans and non-binary folx who may have had negative experiences with health care. So any time they go to health care setting it may be triggering or uncomfortable sitting in a waiting room. With telehealth it’s totally safe, they know they are going to get a competent provider, and their medication is sent to the pharmacy. On top of that, it is challenging for people who live in rural areas to get good care and with our telehealth services they don’t have to face an hour-long drive to get care,” Bukowski said.
Telehealth offered our patients and staff an extra layer of protection from COVID-19, but the benefits will last long after pandemic subsides.
“We have built a stable telehealth system that is going to continue to provide our patients with the care they need in a format that’s comfortable and convenient for them for many years to come,” Bukowski said.
Tags: telehealth