Naval Hospital Jacksonville now offers some health visits as virtual visits, thanks to a new app.
Navy Medicine is conducting its worldwide pilot of Navy Care at Naval Hospital Jacksonville. Navy Care enables patients to have a virtual visit with a clinician, by using a smartphone, tablet, or computer. It’s private, secure, and free.
For a virtual visit, the patient can be at home, at work, or anywhere that offers privacy. The clinician works from their office at the hospital or branch health clinic. The patient and clinician see and talk to each other in real time, using Navy Care’s secure app or website, from any video-enabled device (such as a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer).
“Navy Care delivers convenient care to our patients, with the same quality as a face-to-face visit,” says NH Jacksonville Commanding Officer Capt. David Collins, in a release. “It’s an extension of value-based care, which focuses on value from the perspective of the patient.”
Navy Care has rolled out for certain types of follow-up visits in allergy, behavioral health, clinical pharmacy, diabetes wellness team, family medicine, fitness enhancement program (FEP), neurology/sleep medicine, nutrition, orthopedics/podiatry, specialty pediatrics, periodic health assessment (PHA), and urology.
“The Navy Care app was so easy to use,” says Lt. Kurt Bogart, a fleet division officer based at Naval Station Mayport. “It saved me two hours in travel time for a follow-up visit with my doctor at Naval Hospital Jacksonville.”
Bogart appreciates the convenience the Navy Care app provides. “I think this technology is great,” he says. “My doctor could monitor my progress with the app and discuss my treatment with me, just like I was there in his office.”
“Our sleep medicine patients have been very pleased with the convenience of follow-up visits using the Navy Care virtual environment,” says John Hawley DO, a neurologist at Naval Hospital Jacksonville.
Each of the nearly 50 providers selected for this pilot program have completed specialized training to provide care through the new service.
