My patient, Mary (not her real name) had markedly abnormal labs. I called her but got her voice mail. Great, I needed to talk with her, scheduling some tests to investigate the abnormal labs. So I sent her a Spruce message.
Spruce is our awesome HIPAA-compliant secure messaging app. We’re constantly using it, with patients sending us messages, and we are responding within minutes. In the traditional medicine world patients call the office, tell the secretary their message which gets typed and sent to the nurse, and so on. But with Spruce, people compose their own note about what’s going on, and they get answers quickly. We can copy-paste the messages into their chart. We use the app a lot during the day, but it also makes me, Dr. Herrington, available after-hours as needed. Patients will send a quick note with their concerns, and I can respond as needed.
Anyway, within two minutes of my sending the Spruce message to Mary, she called the office. I was able to explain my concerns, and within a few minutes we had her scheduled for the follow-up tests. She knows she can reach me with any problems… I’m just a Spruce message away. Aah, this is the Medical World as it should be.