Home visit or clinic?

As many healthcare providers are allowed to reopen their clinics and start seeing patients in person again, we all need to pause and digest the fact that the world that we’re returning to, is different from the one in which we lived prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our experience returning to the retailers, medical clinics and other establishments that we were so familiar with, will be noticeably different. With factors like physical distancing, reduced store capacity, mandatory face masks, and reduced product and service availability, people are actively looking for safer, more convenient alternatives.

HealthCasa was founded with the goal of providing a safer, more convenient alternative to in-clinic healthcare appointments.  The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have thrust these concerns into the forefront of our minds and we’re here to answer the call.

But let’s think about this logically, and let’s look at your options of going to a physical clinic versus having a home visit.

A Home visit is a lower risk alternative

When you go to a clinic, you are exposed to an environment where:

• Multiple other patients have been
• Those patients have touched multiple surfaces
• More staff are typically present (E.g. Receptionists and admin staff, other healthcare practitioners)

When a practitioner comes to see you at your home:

• You are in control of your environment
• There are less ‘touch points’ (E.g. You can open the door for the practitioner and lead them to the space in your home where you feel comfortable to have the appointment)
• There are fewer people (E.g. no receptionists, admin staff or other healthcare practitioners)
• There is better ventilation and thus a lower risk of exposure (E.g. Option to open a window or door or have the appointment outside)

Generally speaking, you can never eliminate 100% of the risk in any situation. so in the current climate staying safe and reducing your risk of infection is top of mind for everyone.

Home visits are more convenient

With everyone working from home now, we’re all itching to get out and go somewhere, anywhere, just to get out of the house.  Taking into consideration the lower risk alternative outlined above, it makes more sense to save our ‘getting-out-of-the-house’ time for more fun things like going for a walk with the family, going on a bike ride, or any other safe outdoor leisure activities.

Make better use of your time at home by eliminating the time you’d otherwise spend travelling to and from a given clinic, and the time wasted sitting in a waiting room. Granted, clinics aren’t really using their waiting rooms right now.  Instead, once you check into the clinic for your appointment, you’re asked to wait outside the clinic somewhere close by, perhaps in your car if you drove, until the clinic calls you to tell you to come inside for your appointment.  Hardly a time efficient experience.

Also, with schools and child care facilities still closed and most clinics requiring that no one other than the patient enter the clinic, having an in-clinic appointment if you're a parent becomes an even bigger challenge.

This is what we do

Since day one we’ve operated HealthCasa in a way that offers our patients the best in safety and convenience.  

We’ve always felt that the whole clinic experience left something to be desired.  Between the wasted time travelling to and from the clinic, time spent sitting in waiting rooms for your appointment, that always seems to be running a bit late, and spending unnecessary amounts of time with other people in the waiting rooms, the whole process seemed broken to us.

We looked at these systemic problems plaguing healthcare clinics and built a business around solving those problems. Keeping our patients healthy and offering healthcare appointments in the most convenient way possible, in a variety of disciplines is our passion.  Keeping our patients and practitioners safe throughout the whole process is our duty.

Virtual vs in-person appointments

This is also an important time to look at some of the newer ways you can access various types of healthcare.  Virtual healthcare appointments have been around for a few years however when the pandemic hit, virtual healthcare was thrust into the spotlight as demand surged.  It’s easier than ever to book and attend virtual appointments and it’s a safe and convenient option for most people looking for help with a variety of conditions.

HealthCasa offers most of our services virtually including - Naturopathy, Nutrition, Dietetics, Physiotherapy and Chiropody. For services where manual hands-on therapy is required and both the patients and practitioner have passed a mandatory COVID-19 screening survey, an in-person appointment is available at your home, for Chiropody, Orthotics and Physiotherapy. If required we will make use of the hybrid-model of care, whereby we combine the use of virtual care with an in-person visit.

How we’re making things EVEN SAFER during this time

In addition to our practitioners wearing all the required PPE (personal protective equipment), we’re being as flexible as we can to ensure that our patients feel as comfortable as possible by offering options like having your appointment in your backyard or on your balcony.  

We’re big on education and we always make ourselves available to anyone who has any questions or concerns.  

Take away points

Keeping yourself and your loved ones safe should always be number one priority. But caring for your health and that of your loved ones is a very close second.  Over the last few months there have been sweeping changes to everything we do and it’s important to know your options and to make the right choice for both yourself and your family.

Not sure what to do? Have questions? We’re here to help.

Call or text us at 647.691.5150 or email us at info@healthcasa.com

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