VIRTUAL HEALTHCARE AND COVID-19

Virtual Healthcare and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is now impacting Canadians in every province. As you navigate through this challenging time, your first priority is to ensure that your family and loved ones are safe. How do you keep your family safe? How do you keep your workers safe?

Virtual healthcare is one way to help keep you and your family safe. GroupHEALTH’s partnership with Akira, one of Canada’s leading virtual healthcare providers, gives our plan members access to anytime, anywhere healthcare using a phone, tablet or computer.

What is virtual healthcare?

Virtual healthcare allows you to use telecommunications to connect with medical professionals like doctors and nurse practitioners. This remote access is secure and confidential.

Virtual healthcare professionals can resolve approximately 50% of primary care concerns typically seen in a doctor’s office. Akira’s doctors and nurse practitioners can provide services such as:

• Assessing patients
• Diagnosing medical concerns
• Writing new prescriptions and renewing existing prescriptions
• Making referrals to other healthcare providers or specialists
• Providing medical documentation
• Helping facilitate in-person care when required

What is a pandemic?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic occurs when a virus spreads across several continents and affects a large percentage of the population. It is usually spread easily between people, and most people do not have immunity to it. The severity of the illness is not connected to whether it is deemed a “pandemic;” the spread of the disease is the deciding factor. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March, 2020 as it began spreading around the world.

Benefits to using virtual healthcare during a pandemic

Virtual healthcare is valuable during regular times, but during a pandemic, there are several advantages:

Akira’s COVID-19 Self Assessment Tool

Akira Virtual Healthcare has developed a COVID-19 self-assessment tool to assist people in determining if they may have COVID-19. The current situation in Canada is changing quickly, and Akira is in contact with health officials to provide patients with the most current information and advice about COVID-19. 

Using Akira is Easy

Akira has made it easy to access a health professional from any phone or computer. Signing up is easy, and talking to a health practitioner is fast.  The doctor or nurse practitioner will help you use your phone to get the best results, including features like your phone and secure chat to get to a diagnosis.

Good Advice is Key

During these challenging times, it’s important to ensure information related to COVID-19 comes from a reputable source. Please be sure to refer to official sources such as the World Health Organization, your local health authority and government health websites.  

If you have questions on how COVID-19 impacts your benefits plan, how you can add virtual healthcare to your current plan or anything else related to benefit plans, we’re here to help.