UPMC Offers a New Way to Deliver Care With it's New Virtual Primary Care Practice
With telemedicine, maintaining one’s good health has never been easier, and UPMC now offers a virtual version of the traditional, brick and mortar, “doctor’s” office.
Featuring:
Carleen Warner, MD, MBA
Carleen Warner, MD, MBA, is the medical director for the PinnacleHealth Medical Group, Lancaster Region, UPMC Pinnacle. Dr. Warner is board-certified in family medicine. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from North Dakota State University, a medical degree from University of North Dakota School of Medicine, and an MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business. She completed her family medicine residency at WellSpan York Hospital. Transcription:
Bill Klaproth (Host): With Telemedicine, maintaining one's good health has never been easier. And UPMC now offers a virtual version of the traditional brick and mortar doctor’s office, with its new virtual primary care practice. So, let's learn more with Dr. Carleen Warner, Medical Director, Lancaster Region at UPMC Pinnacle.
This is Healthier You, a podcast from UPMC Pinnacle. I'm Bill Klaproth. Dr. Warner, thank you so much for your time. It is great to talk with you. So, let's start with this. First off, what is virtual primary care?
Carleen Warner, MD, MBA (Guest): Virtual primary care is kind of a new care model that came a little bit out of COVID. We all had to start doing things differently during COVID and one of those things was how we went and got medical care. We did a lot of virtual care and telephone visits and video visits with patients. A lot of people found that to be very convenient. So, after COVID, we started going back kind of to our own habits and our comfort zones, which is very much human nature, but we found that there was this group of people that really liked the convenience of having medical care available virtually. So, virtual primary care is a practice that we started. And it's really just the way that you and I would go to see our doctor now in a bricks and mortar practice, but the practice resides online. And so almost all of your interactions and healthcare is performed online. If we need to see you in person, we absolutely will do that. But almost all of the interactions are able to be done online through a video connection and an audio connection.
Host: Yeah, this is really convenient. And a lot of people who never would have thought to have tried it, but certainly have had to use it during the pandemic. It's proven people really like this. What happens if someone does need to be seen in person, what happens then?
Dr. Warner: Yeah, it's a really neat practice. So, throughout all of the communities where UPMC Pinnacle has offices, we have a provider in really each of those areas that can see you in person. And those are the same providers that practice in the virtual primary care practice. And they work part-time in their traditional bricks and mortar office, and then they work part-time in the virtual primary care practice. So, say you're in York and you need to be seen, say you need stitches or you need a flu shot or you're having chest pain or shortness of breath, and we just really don't think we can do a good job online. Then we're going to schedule you to see one of our virtual primary care doctors in person at a location that's convenient and close for you.
Host: Yeah, that sounds good. Now, what are the hours? Are they traditional hours? When can someone see a virtual primary care provider?
Dr. Warner: So, it is pretty much what you would consider, most offices are open from eight to five, Monday through Friday. Now, certainly if you need urgent or emergent care after that, there is a nurse advice line that you can call. And if you call the phone number to the practice, you'll be directed right to them after hours. And there's always an emergency room if you really are in a bad situation, but we also have online urgent care or urgent care bricks and mortar in all of our communities as well. It's really a 24/7 care coverage, just like you would have again, if you were going to your traditional bricks and mortar primary care office.
Host: And then what happens if my primary care provider is unavailable?
Dr. Warner: Yeah. So, I'm going to sound like a broken record a little bit, but it's really just what would happen now. So, you call your office, oh, Dr. Smith, who's your doctor isn't in, but I've got five other doctors today in the office who can see you. It's the same thing. There's always a provider there who can cover if your provider's not in the virtual practice that day, then you'll be seeing one of the partners who is in the virtual practice.
Host: Got it. And as you know, illness strikes at any time, it just doesn't conveniently happen during the day. What if someone needs care after hours?
Dr. Warner: Yeah, absolutely. You can call in to that number and you'll be directed to our nurse advice line with really, really great, high quality nurses. And they can help you determine if you need to be seen or if you need the appointment the next day. You can go to one of our express care sites, which are open 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, seven days a week. Or you can actually log on and see an express care provider with an online visit. And this has been something really neat that we started since COVID as well. And you just have to go to our website. And, you click on UPMCpinacle.com/rightcare. And you can have a virtual express care visit for urgent care, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. And after that, you would be calling the nurse advice line and they would be helping you decide what the right care option was for you if say it's two in the morning or something like that.
Host: So, UPMC Pinnacle Right Care. So, then let me ask you this. Does insurance pay for these visits like a regular doctor's visit?
Dr. Warner: Yes, it absolutely does. And again, maybe one of the good things that's going to end up coming out of COVID, is your insurance will now cover virtual care. And we certainly hope that extends throughout the public health emergency. Our newly elected President Biden has indicated that he would like Medicare and Medicaid to continue to do that. And most other insurers do follow what Medicare and Medicaid do. Your normal copays, your normal deductibles, those will all apply just as if again, you were being seen in a regular traditional bricks and mortar primary care practice.
Host: So, then who is this best suited for? Who should consider a virtual primary care visit at UPMC?
Dr. Warner: I personally think it's going to apply to a pretty broad group of people. There's going to be the folks that really just find it convenient and easier. So, that might be somebody who travels a lot for work or somebody who has a really busy work schedule and it's hard to get three hours in a day off to go drive to a doctor's appointment, have the appointment, drive back to work or think of a new parent maybe who needs to be seen, but they have 45 minutes of their child's nap time. You cannot get to a doctor’s appointment and home in that period of time or people who have transportation challenges. Say someone has some difficulty leaving their house and their adult child or grandchild has to come and take some time off of work and get them loaded up and get them to the doctor's office. And it's really difficult sometimes in situations like that. Those are all people that could really benefit from a practice like this.
Also say you've got a child who's away at college and they want to keep their local primary care. They hopefully would be in a state that we can still see them in depending on where they went to college. Another group of folks that I can imagine might like this after practicing primary care for 20 years, you realize you know there are just some people that for whatever reason they do not like to come into the doctor's office. Maybe they feel anxious leaving their home. Maybe they get hypertension or anxiety. They just don't like being there. And this might be a really good option because you can do it from the comfort of your own home as long as you have an internet connection and any sort of a smart device with a phone and a speaker.
Host: Yeah, the comfort of your own home is very appealing. And then, let me ask you this. What about for someone with multiple medical issues? Would a virtual visit be the best course of action for someone like that?
Dr. Warner: It is certainly an excellent option. There are very few chronic medical conditions that we cannot now manage well virtually. We have remote patient monitoring equipment that might tell us what your blood pressure is doing or your weight is doing if you have say stage four congestive heart failure or a glucometer that you can download those glucose readings directly into your chart if you're a diabetic. So, this might be an ideal scenario for people with a lot of medical problems and maybe some transportation difficulties on top of that. But we can take care of really almost all chronic medical conditions very well virtually given the current technology. And you know there's some really exciting things coming that we don't necessarily have yet. So, for example from a technology standpoint, if you think your child might have an ear infection there is a kit that you can get and hook up to your smartphone that will take a picture of their eardrum and you can send that to their physician or their provider. Right now that's about a $2,000 out of pocket expenditure which a lot of people don't have sitting around or necessarily want to spend on that if they didn't have it sitting around. But those technologies will become much more affordable and available. And so I'm very excited to see where this goes in the next five years.
Host: Yeah, this will be interesting to watch. And then can someone use this service and keep their current primary care provider?
Dr. Warner: That's something you really can't do. Because just like if you would change primary care providers or family physicians or internal medicine physicians and you would actually transfer your care. This would be transferring your care into the virtual primary care practice with one of our eight very, very excellent providers
Host: Okay, so eight providers. Can you tell us more about these virtual care providers?
Dr. Warner: So, we've got Dr. Heather Morphy who is in our Lancaster region. We've got Dr. McKinney-Bourne, Dr. Kim Lumsden, Alison Gilman also in Lancaster, Christine Hudgens in York, Stacy Gibson who was in the Spring Grove region. So kind of more the Western part of the UPMC Pinnacle area. Jennifer Marx and Kathy Dayfe. So, they're all really fabulous providers and they've all been employed with UPMC Pinnacle for quite some time. They're well-known in their communities. They're providing high quality care. I know them all and I personally enjoy them as human beings. They're the people that you would see if you did need to be seen in person physically at one of their offices as well. So, there's definitely this local touch point which I think is really important because you don't know when you're going to need that local touch point and we've got you covered if that ends up being the case.
Host: Yeah, that's a really good point. And then what makes these providers unique from other virtual primary care practices across the country?
Dr. Warner: So, these providers have a practice in their bricks and mortar practice and a patient panel that they follow and they take really good care of. And they have a practice in the virtual primary care practice with the patient panel that they follow and they take really good care of. Now a lot of our providers since COVID are doing online visits with their own patients but that's not really our default position as people who have been seeing patients in our offices for years and years and years. But in the virtual primary care practice that is the default unless you need to be seen in person and we need to do a hands-on exam or a procedure. The default is that you are going to be seen online virtually. And it's really, really great for some patients.
Host: Yeah, it's easy to see that. So, earlier we talked about how easy this is, but is there any special equipment someone may need to participate in a virtual care visit?
Dr. Warner: Well you need the internet connection and an audio connection and a video connection. The video connection ends up being kind of important because we can look at rashes, we can examine certain parts of the body. We can say Ooh that's a really ugly looking bruise. Maybe I need to check your blood counts or your clotting factors or something like that. But that's really all you need and as you say a lot of people do have that now.
Host: And then what about if someone needs a test?
Dr. Warner: Yeah. So, just imagine if you or I needed a test now, we would go to our doctor's appointment, our doctor would order that test and then it would be scheduled. We would go for the test. The doctor would get the results and notify us. It's the same thing except for the first part of that all happens virtually. So, if I'm seeing you in an appointment in virtual primary care and you need to go say have a chest x-ray done, we will order that and get that scheduled at a time that's convenient for you. Or you can even schedule it yourself on the portal at a time that's convenient for you. You'll go to the place where you would normally go to get the x-ray done. Because we don't have that virtually yet. And then when I get the results, we will call you right away or you can also get the results very quickly on the portal. So,. It's very similar. You still have to leave your house for the test. But all of the things before and after are done virtually.
Host: Okay. And then what about children? Can children become patients of virtual primary care at UPMC?
Dr. Warner: Well the short answer to that is not at this time. We really are seeing patients 18 and over. And the reason for that comes down to when kids are younger than 18 there's a really rigorous vaccination schedule that's recommended. And so you would end up having those kiddos in the office pretty frequently anyway. And so it minimizes some of the value at this point. So, we're concentrating on the patients 18 and over.
Host: And just to be clear, the practice is open now is that correct?
Dr. Warner: It is. Yeah we opened on January 4th and it's been going really well so far. Really great feedback from the patients.
Host: Great. And if someone listening to this says I'm in, how do I sign up? How can someone become a patient?
Dr. Warner: Great question. And we would love to have you try it out if you think that that sounds like a care model that might be convenient and good for you. You can contact us two ways. There are ways to contact us on the portal which is mypinnaclehealth.org. So, if you have a portal account, you can schedule your first appointment on there. If you don't have a portal account or you're just looking for a little bit more information, you can call the practice at 717-207-4800. Or if you just want to see you know is this maybe right for me I have a few more questions, you can check us out online at upmc.com/virtualPCPcentralPA.
Host: Great information. And thank you for sharing all of that contact info with us. Really helpful. Well Dr. Warner, this has really been informative and exciting to hear about this new virtual version of the traditional brick and mortar doctors office. Thank you so much for spending so much time with us and explaining all of this to us. We appreciate it.
Dr. Warner: Great. Thank you very much.
Host: That's Dr. Carleen Warner. And for more information, please visit UPMC.com/virtualPCPcentral PA. Once again, that's UPMC.com/virtualPCPcentralPA. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. And check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Healthier You, a podcast from UPMC Pinnacle. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.
Bill Klaproth (Host): With Telemedicine, maintaining one's good health has never been easier. And UPMC now offers a virtual version of the traditional brick and mortar doctor’s office, with its new virtual primary care practice. So, let's learn more with Dr. Carleen Warner, Medical Director, Lancaster Region at UPMC Pinnacle.
This is Healthier You, a podcast from UPMC Pinnacle. I'm Bill Klaproth. Dr. Warner, thank you so much for your time. It is great to talk with you. So, let's start with this. First off, what is virtual primary care?
Carleen Warner, MD, MBA (Guest): Virtual primary care is kind of a new care model that came a little bit out of COVID. We all had to start doing things differently during COVID and one of those things was how we went and got medical care. We did a lot of virtual care and telephone visits and video visits with patients. A lot of people found that to be very convenient. So, after COVID, we started going back kind of to our own habits and our comfort zones, which is very much human nature, but we found that there was this group of people that really liked the convenience of having medical care available virtually. So, virtual primary care is a practice that we started. And it's really just the way that you and I would go to see our doctor now in a bricks and mortar practice, but the practice resides online. And so almost all of your interactions and healthcare is performed online. If we need to see you in person, we absolutely will do that. But almost all of the interactions are able to be done online through a video connection and an audio connection.
Host: Yeah, this is really convenient. And a lot of people who never would have thought to have tried it, but certainly have had to use it during the pandemic. It's proven people really like this. What happens if someone does need to be seen in person, what happens then?
Dr. Warner: Yeah, it's a really neat practice. So, throughout all of the communities where UPMC Pinnacle has offices, we have a provider in really each of those areas that can see you in person. And those are the same providers that practice in the virtual primary care practice. And they work part-time in their traditional bricks and mortar office, and then they work part-time in the virtual primary care practice. So, say you're in York and you need to be seen, say you need stitches or you need a flu shot or you're having chest pain or shortness of breath, and we just really don't think we can do a good job online. Then we're going to schedule you to see one of our virtual primary care doctors in person at a location that's convenient and close for you.
Host: Yeah, that sounds good. Now, what are the hours? Are they traditional hours? When can someone see a virtual primary care provider?
Dr. Warner: So, it is pretty much what you would consider, most offices are open from eight to five, Monday through Friday. Now, certainly if you need urgent or emergent care after that, there is a nurse advice line that you can call. And if you call the phone number to the practice, you'll be directed right to them after hours. And there's always an emergency room if you really are in a bad situation, but we also have online urgent care or urgent care bricks and mortar in all of our communities as well. It's really a 24/7 care coverage, just like you would have again, if you were going to your traditional bricks and mortar primary care office.
Host: And then what happens if my primary care provider is unavailable?
Dr. Warner: Yeah. So, I'm going to sound like a broken record a little bit, but it's really just what would happen now. So, you call your office, oh, Dr. Smith, who's your doctor isn't in, but I've got five other doctors today in the office who can see you. It's the same thing. There's always a provider there who can cover if your provider's not in the virtual practice that day, then you'll be seeing one of the partners who is in the virtual practice.
Host: Got it. And as you know, illness strikes at any time, it just doesn't conveniently happen during the day. What if someone needs care after hours?
Dr. Warner: Yeah, absolutely. You can call in to that number and you'll be directed to our nurse advice line with really, really great, high quality nurses. And they can help you determine if you need to be seen or if you need the appointment the next day. You can go to one of our express care sites, which are open 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, seven days a week. Or you can actually log on and see an express care provider with an online visit. And this has been something really neat that we started since COVID as well. And you just have to go to our website. And, you click on UPMCpinacle.com/rightcare. And you can have a virtual express care visit for urgent care, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. And after that, you would be calling the nurse advice line and they would be helping you decide what the right care option was for you if say it's two in the morning or something like that.
Host: So, UPMC Pinnacle Right Care. So, then let me ask you this. Does insurance pay for these visits like a regular doctor's visit?
Dr. Warner: Yes, it absolutely does. And again, maybe one of the good things that's going to end up coming out of COVID, is your insurance will now cover virtual care. And we certainly hope that extends throughout the public health emergency. Our newly elected President Biden has indicated that he would like Medicare and Medicaid to continue to do that. And most other insurers do follow what Medicare and Medicaid do. Your normal copays, your normal deductibles, those will all apply just as if again, you were being seen in a regular traditional bricks and mortar primary care practice.
Host: So, then who is this best suited for? Who should consider a virtual primary care visit at UPMC?
Dr. Warner: I personally think it's going to apply to a pretty broad group of people. There's going to be the folks that really just find it convenient and easier. So, that might be somebody who travels a lot for work or somebody who has a really busy work schedule and it's hard to get three hours in a day off to go drive to a doctor's appointment, have the appointment, drive back to work or think of a new parent maybe who needs to be seen, but they have 45 minutes of their child's nap time. You cannot get to a doctor’s appointment and home in that period of time or people who have transportation challenges. Say someone has some difficulty leaving their house and their adult child or grandchild has to come and take some time off of work and get them loaded up and get them to the doctor's office. And it's really difficult sometimes in situations like that. Those are all people that could really benefit from a practice like this.
Also say you've got a child who's away at college and they want to keep their local primary care. They hopefully would be in a state that we can still see them in depending on where they went to college. Another group of folks that I can imagine might like this after practicing primary care for 20 years, you realize you know there are just some people that for whatever reason they do not like to come into the doctor's office. Maybe they feel anxious leaving their home. Maybe they get hypertension or anxiety. They just don't like being there. And this might be a really good option because you can do it from the comfort of your own home as long as you have an internet connection and any sort of a smart device with a phone and a speaker.
Host: Yeah, the comfort of your own home is very appealing. And then, let me ask you this. What about for someone with multiple medical issues? Would a virtual visit be the best course of action for someone like that?
Dr. Warner: It is certainly an excellent option. There are very few chronic medical conditions that we cannot now manage well virtually. We have remote patient monitoring equipment that might tell us what your blood pressure is doing or your weight is doing if you have say stage four congestive heart failure or a glucometer that you can download those glucose readings directly into your chart if you're a diabetic. So, this might be an ideal scenario for people with a lot of medical problems and maybe some transportation difficulties on top of that. But we can take care of really almost all chronic medical conditions very well virtually given the current technology. And you know there's some really exciting things coming that we don't necessarily have yet. So, for example from a technology standpoint, if you think your child might have an ear infection there is a kit that you can get and hook up to your smartphone that will take a picture of their eardrum and you can send that to their physician or their provider. Right now that's about a $2,000 out of pocket expenditure which a lot of people don't have sitting around or necessarily want to spend on that if they didn't have it sitting around. But those technologies will become much more affordable and available. And so I'm very excited to see where this goes in the next five years.
Host: Yeah, this will be interesting to watch. And then can someone use this service and keep their current primary care provider?
Dr. Warner: That's something you really can't do. Because just like if you would change primary care providers or family physicians or internal medicine physicians and you would actually transfer your care. This would be transferring your care into the virtual primary care practice with one of our eight very, very excellent providers
Host: Okay, so eight providers. Can you tell us more about these virtual care providers?
Dr. Warner: So, we've got Dr. Heather Morphy who is in our Lancaster region. We've got Dr. McKinney-Bourne, Dr. Kim Lumsden, Alison Gilman also in Lancaster, Christine Hudgens in York, Stacy Gibson who was in the Spring Grove region. So kind of more the Western part of the UPMC Pinnacle area. Jennifer Marx and Kathy Dayfe. So, they're all really fabulous providers and they've all been employed with UPMC Pinnacle for quite some time. They're well-known in their communities. They're providing high quality care. I know them all and I personally enjoy them as human beings. They're the people that you would see if you did need to be seen in person physically at one of their offices as well. So, there's definitely this local touch point which I think is really important because you don't know when you're going to need that local touch point and we've got you covered if that ends up being the case.
Host: Yeah, that's a really good point. And then what makes these providers unique from other virtual primary care practices across the country?
Dr. Warner: So, these providers have a practice in their bricks and mortar practice and a patient panel that they follow and they take really good care of. And they have a practice in the virtual primary care practice with the patient panel that they follow and they take really good care of. Now a lot of our providers since COVID are doing online visits with their own patients but that's not really our default position as people who have been seeing patients in our offices for years and years and years. But in the virtual primary care practice that is the default unless you need to be seen in person and we need to do a hands-on exam or a procedure. The default is that you are going to be seen online virtually. And it's really, really great for some patients.
Host: Yeah, it's easy to see that. So, earlier we talked about how easy this is, but is there any special equipment someone may need to participate in a virtual care visit?
Dr. Warner: Well you need the internet connection and an audio connection and a video connection. The video connection ends up being kind of important because we can look at rashes, we can examine certain parts of the body. We can say Ooh that's a really ugly looking bruise. Maybe I need to check your blood counts or your clotting factors or something like that. But that's really all you need and as you say a lot of people do have that now.
Host: And then what about if someone needs a test?
Dr. Warner: Yeah. So, just imagine if you or I needed a test now, we would go to our doctor's appointment, our doctor would order that test and then it would be scheduled. We would go for the test. The doctor would get the results and notify us. It's the same thing except for the first part of that all happens virtually. So, if I'm seeing you in an appointment in virtual primary care and you need to go say have a chest x-ray done, we will order that and get that scheduled at a time that's convenient for you. Or you can even schedule it yourself on the portal at a time that's convenient for you. You'll go to the place where you would normally go to get the x-ray done. Because we don't have that virtually yet. And then when I get the results, we will call you right away or you can also get the results very quickly on the portal. So,. It's very similar. You still have to leave your house for the test. But all of the things before and after are done virtually.
Host: Okay. And then what about children? Can children become patients of virtual primary care at UPMC?
Dr. Warner: Well the short answer to that is not at this time. We really are seeing patients 18 and over. And the reason for that comes down to when kids are younger than 18 there's a really rigorous vaccination schedule that's recommended. And so you would end up having those kiddos in the office pretty frequently anyway. And so it minimizes some of the value at this point. So, we're concentrating on the patients 18 and over.
Host: And just to be clear, the practice is open now is that correct?
Dr. Warner: It is. Yeah we opened on January 4th and it's been going really well so far. Really great feedback from the patients.
Host: Great. And if someone listening to this says I'm in, how do I sign up? How can someone become a patient?
Dr. Warner: Great question. And we would love to have you try it out if you think that that sounds like a care model that might be convenient and good for you. You can contact us two ways. There are ways to contact us on the portal which is mypinnaclehealth.org. So, if you have a portal account, you can schedule your first appointment on there. If you don't have a portal account or you're just looking for a little bit more information, you can call the practice at 717-207-4800. Or if you just want to see you know is this maybe right for me I have a few more questions, you can check us out online at upmc.com/virtualPCPcentralPA.
Host: Great information. And thank you for sharing all of that contact info with us. Really helpful. Well Dr. Warner, this has really been informative and exciting to hear about this new virtual version of the traditional brick and mortar doctors office. Thank you so much for spending so much time with us and explaining all of this to us. We appreciate it.
Dr. Warner: Great. Thank you very much.
Host: That's Dr. Carleen Warner. And for more information, please visit UPMC.com/virtualPCPcentral PA. Once again, that's UPMC.com/virtualPCPcentralPA. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. And check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Healthier You, a podcast from UPMC Pinnacle. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.