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Gulf Coast Pain Management
Lynne Carr Columbus, DO
The Doctor is Online
“Progress”
is often a double-edged sword. In the health care delivery system, for
instance,
managed care has made office visits more affordable for many, but it has
reduced the
amount of time physicians can spend with their patients. Progress has
also introduced new
modes of communication and great advances in the electronic transfer of
information.
Lynn Carr Columbus, DO ’90, has embraced technological progress
to fill in the gaps
created by managed care. Dr. Columbus is one of a growing number
of physicians using
online consultations to communicate with her patients.
Dr. Columbus has had a Web site for three years through which her
patients could
set up appointments, have their prescriptions refilled and ask brief
questions. Last spring
she was chosen by Medem, a for-profit Internet company, to be among the
first 1,000
physicians to participate in their online consultation service. Today,
Medem, which is
HIPAA-compliant and backed by the American Medical Association and other
physician
groups, is open to any physician who chooses to participate. Dr.
Columbus maintains
both her original site and a Medem site. Medem enables her to charge for
patients for
online “visits.”
“Patients can still schedule appointments, get their prescriptions
refilled and ask brief
questions for free,” explains Dr. Columbus. More involved
consults cost the patient
$30, with $2.50 of that going to Medem. “Patients love this
service, it really helps
them feel connected with me as a physician.” And, since Dr. Columbus’
specialty is
pain management, she feels her patients especially appreciate the
ease of e-mail for
medication consults. “It’s often difficult for patients with back pain,
for example,
to sit and wait in the office. So I let them do two online consults, and
then come in
for the third one to be seen in person. It wouldn’t work for emergency
situations;
it’s for routine consults and follow-ups.” Online consults are useful
for patients’ family
members as well. “If patients sign a waiver, I can correspond with
their family members
who may not live in the area. This really helps give everyone peace of
mind.”
Dr. Columbus says she spends about a half hour in the morning and
a half hour
in the evening reading and answering her office e-mail, “it really
doesn’t take that
much time,” she insists. “And,” she adds, “I’m always accessible. I
recently answered
e-mails from Budapest.”
Dr. Columbus estimates she spends about $1,500 a year to maintain
the site, which
includes paying for the domain name and to be included in search
engines. In return,
the Internet brings her two to three new patients a week. She also uses
the sites to
introduce herself to referring physicians.
“It’s just a matter of time,” Dr. Columbus believes, “before
patients are going to
expect this of their doctors.”
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Dr.
Lynne Carr Columbus, D.O.
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