Getting Old Sucks. Can Virtual Care Help?
It was 8:55 am and the gentle ‘ding’ on my laptop told me that Joan had just arrived into my virtual waiting room. All I had to do was click on the little green icon to let Joan into my home, and me into hers.
There she was, beaming in her living room. Joan is an amazing, progressive, 87-year old who has spent much of her life traveling all over the world. The COVID experience had been challenging, as she was now holed up in her apartment in an assisted living facility.
With all the risk factors for contracting the disease, Joan had to be all the more careful when it came to leaving her home. She had been confined to her living space, with not a single step outdoors for the last 3-months. So, she was happy for any form of human contact.
We were both thrilled to see each other and after exchanging pleasantries, she said “Jag, I know you can’t examine me over this tele-portal, but I have all my readings ready for you. My heart rate about 30 minutes ago was 73, the upper blood pressure reading was 130 and the lower one 70. I do not have a fever and my oxygen levels are 93.”
She quickly added that she had invested in an oxygen saturation monitor because of the pandemic and her precarious…
