3 minute read
On the Road to Recovery Without Leaving the couch.
Written By: TERRI CASTERTON Director, Healthcare Product and Strategy, Bottle Rocket
It was a lousy day. A nasty stomach virus had me making trips back and forth from bed to bathroom all day. I could barely stand due to lightheadedness. Was this a “normal” stomach bug? Should I stick it out or seek some medical attention? Should I call my partner to come take me to urgent care? Do I really want to sit in an urgent care waiting room while throwing up in a bucket?
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When one is sick, the brain is clouded, and it’s tough to think clearly let alone make a decision about where to go and what to do. Thankfully I had one moment of clarity in my hazy state. I remembered the Denver start-up that was reinventing the house call, Dispatch Health. I gave them a call and spoke with a calm, compassionate nurse who triaged my symptoms. She said she could have someone to my door in less than two hours and asked me to download their app to keep track of where the care team was en-route to my house.
Within an hour, a nurse practitioner and a tech were at my door. After a few minutes of them assessing my vitals, they had fashioned an IV “pole” out of a coat hanger and a drapery rod, inserted a bag of lactated ringers (for hydration), and given me a dose of Zofran (for the vomiting and nausea). While the fluids and meds ran through my body and started bringing me back to life, the tech was sitting with her laptop at my dining room table processing my insurance and registration. The nurse practitioner took a finger stick of blood and ran a test on her mobile point of care device to see how my iron stores were doing. All the while, I was laying comfortably on my sofa next to a warm fireplace with my cat on my lap, chatting with Jane about her favorite hiking spots.
The next day, I received a checkin call to see how I was doing, a follow-up message reminding me that I could access all of the care details in my account on the app, and a very reasonable bill. Mobile technology, caring people, and an OUTSTANDING experience that come together to solve a real pain point in healthcare? I don’t get sick often (knock on wood), but next time I do, I know who I will call.
