WORCESTER, Mass., July 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- UMass Memorial Health Care is introducing virtual physician visits for diagnosis and treatment of common health concerns. The central Massachusetts health care leader has partnered with Zipnosis, a Minneapolis-based company, to provide an online diagnosis and treatment service that will connect patients to UMass Memorial clinicians online to receive prompt, high-quality virtual care for common medical conditions, such as sinus infections, colds and flu, female bladder infections and pink eye.
Starting in October any of UMass Memorial Health Care's 12,900 employees who have a UMass Memorial provider will be able to use the new service. The health care system hopes to offer it to the general public in early 2016. It is anticipated that the virtual visits will be offered for a flat fee, and may be covered by insurance. The service is available 24-hours a day, with provider diagnosis and treatment available within an hour from 7 am to 10 pm daily. Requests that come in at night will be prioritized for response in the morning.
"Through our partnership with Zipnosis, we are excited to give more patients access to fast, affordable mainstream medicine in minutes," said Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial. "The Zipnosis platform will allow us to make high quality care from our own clinicians available to patients where and when they want to receive it, at an affordable price. This new service is an important component of UMass Memorial's commitment to growing our virtual medical capabilities. We've long offered cutting-edge virtual care for the most serious conditions – for instance we remotely monitor patients in more than 14 intensive care units across the state through our eICU program, and our Teleneurology program which covers eight hospitals, representing 887 inpatient beds. Our partnership with Zipnosis will help us bring virtual care to patients with simple medical needs."
"This is an exciting collaboration for Zipnosis," says Jon Pearce, CEO and co-founder of Zipnosis. "Our team loves working with strategic partners like UMass Memorial who truly value their patients' and providers' time. By offering virtual care, UMass Memorial is positioned to be a market leader in central Massachusetts, and we're thrilled to empower their patients and clinicians with our platform."
Designed on the premise of quality care above all else, Zipnosis is continuing to improve patient care one click at a time –and demonstrating excellence compliance to CDC's clinical guidelines for many of the conditions it treats. In fact, adherence to evidence-based guidelines via the Zipnosis platform is 98.4 percent for sinusitis and nearly 100 percent for UTI.
About UMass Memorial Health Care
UMass Memorial Health Care is the largest not-for-profit health care system in Central Massachusetts with more than 12,900 employees and 1,670 physicians, many of whom are members of UMass Memorial Medical Group. Our member hospitals and entities include Clinton Hospital, HealthAlliance Hospital, Marlborough Hospital, UMass Memorial Medical Center and Community Healthlink, our behavioral health agency. With our teaching and research partner, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, our extensive primary care network and our cancer, diabetes, heart and vascular and musculoskeletal programs, UMass Memorial delivers safe, high-quality and compassionate care. Visit umassmemorialhealthcare.org
About Zipnosis
Founded in 2008, privately-held Zipnosis is the first virtual care solution to empower health care systems with the technology and methodology to launch their own virtual care service line in a profoundly fast and simple way. The proven-in-use, best practice-based methodology ensures health system-wide engagement, while the asynchronous, adaptive assessment software offers patients modern-day access and convenience, significantly reducing the clinical time required to safely diagnose, treat or triage more than 90 minor medical conditions.
The unique health system brand extension approach enables a branded, digital access point to attract more patients to the care they need and ensures in-system care quality and continuity from the health system's clinicians and triage points. Visit www.zipnosis.com to learn more.