ManageMyHealth introduces appointment pre-screening and video consulting to manage COVID-19 risk

Medtech is doing all it can to help reduce the primary care workload and enable general practices to work as efficiently as possible as New Zealand moves into the busy winter season.

One major step is that New Zealand’s leading patient portal ManageMyHealth, a subsidiary of Medtech, has launched an online pre-screening tool for patients making online appointments to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading.

Patients who make an appointment to see their GP through ManageMyHealth are asked pre-screening questions about their symptoms, recent travel and whether they have been in contact with anybody with COVID-19.

Depending on their answers, patients are advised to either self-isolate, phone their general practice for advice or free phone the dedicated COVID-19 Healthline 0800 358 5453.

Patients who don’t meet any suspected COVID-19 criteria can then book an appointment. Patients worried about having COVID-19 are also reminded not to turn up to their general practice without phoning beforehand.

ManageMyHealth Chief Architect Sanjeewa Samaraweera says pre-screening reduces the risk of patients with flu-like symptoms coming into the practice and potentially spreading the disease.

“The online pre-screening also helps reduce the workload of the practice because it means staff don’t have to do the screening themselves,” Mr Samaraweera says.

As New Zealand enters its flu season, coupled with the threat of more COVID-19 cases, he says general practices will become busier than ever.

Mr Samaraweera says there’s been a significant increase in inquiries about the video consultation service as GPs and other healthcare providers prepare for COVID-19.

“We’ve also had lots of general practices deciding to enable their ManageMyHealth video consultation capability,” he says.

GPs have had the ability to use ManageMyHealth for some time, but now with pre-screening highlighting the real benefits to them and patients during the pandemic, they are keen to get all their patients signed up and using the technology.

Video consultations allow unwell patients to be seen without the risk of spreading infectious diseases to other patients and medical staff and for quarantined patients to be checked remotely.

“It also means that medical staff who are in self-isolation but feel well can still see patients remotely using video consultations.”

He says video consultations support both planned and unplanned appointments and are a safe and secure way to manage health online.

“Patients can book video consultations or GPs can initiate them when they see fit,” he says.

“It’s about being prepared with the right tools for what could potentially be an extremely busy period,” Mr Samaraweera says.