{"id":26364,"date":"2020-04-16T15:06:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T19:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26364"},"modified":"2020-04-16T15:06:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T19:06:18","slug":"dial-a-doc-helps-patients-connect-with-doctors-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/dial-a-doc-helps-patients-connect-with-doctors-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Dial-a-Doc helps patients connect with doctors during COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As it gets harder for patients in Ontario to see doctors\namid the COVID-19 pandemic, a Toronto doctor is hoping to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Mark Auspitz, MD, CCFP, has launched Dial-a-Doc, a\nfree website that connects patients in Ontario with doctors for phone\nappointments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen a patient registers, we match them to a clinic that\nwill call them back and provide an assessment by phone. The purpose is to try\nto keep as many people as possible away from emergency rooms\/busy walk-in\nclinics. We can offer guidance for most acute conditions and if we cannot\nmanage it over the phone, we can direct them to the most appropriate care,\u201d says\nDr Auspitz. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, the website has helped match over 4,000 patients\nwith doctors since its launch recently, and Dr Auspitz estimates that around\n200-250 patients have come from Aurora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPatients will usually get their appointment by phone\nwithin 24 hours. This service is completely free and covered by OHIP. We can\nrefill prescriptions\/order investigations as needed,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Kramer, a patient who used the service,\nsaid, \u201cIt was simple and easy. A local doctors\u2019 office called me within 24\nhours, both to schedule and then subsequently fulfill on my appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Auspitz, who trained at the University of Toronto, has\nhis own practice and also offers a walk-in service. He was motivated to help when\nhe began to see the fallouts of the COVID-19 spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA few weeks ago, during the start of the COVID-19 surge,\nI saw a walk-in clinic patient whom I had never met before. All she needed was\na refill on her diabetes medication but her family doctor recently retired and\nshe had no way to fill her medications. I noticed that she seemed a bit\nfrightened during our interaction and when I asked her why, she replied that\nbeing elderly and diabetic, she was at a higher risk for COVID-19\ncomplications.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interaction triggered Dr Auspitz to start Dial-a-Doc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of Dial-a-Doc\u2019s roles in the current pandemic is to\nfacilitate people filling their chronic disease medications. The current\npandemic will likely last months. People missing their statins could have heart\nattacks. Those without insulin could go into diabetic coma. Asthmatics missing\ntheir puffers can have respiratory attacks. But it is impossible to balance\nthese more abstract risks with the immediate risk that COVID-19 poses,\u201d he\nexplained, adding that a doctor on Dial-a-Doc can fax a prescription to any\npharmacy a patient chooses (many also deliver) so that someone with a medical\ncomorbidity can stay safe at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Auspitz\u2019s wife helped him set up the Dial-a-Doc\nwebsite. He maintains that they only work with established clinics who already\nhave their own computer system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur website simply gathers some non-medical contact\ninformation for the patients and then distributes it among our existing\npartners who can call the patient for the appointment and document the interaction\non their secure system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the launch of the website, they have been able to\ndivert close to a 1,000 people with viral cold symptoms away from emergency\nrooms and walk-in clinics, where they could have spread infection in the\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people were confused about COVID-19 and were going\nto the emergency room for very mild flu symptoms. This puts themselves and\nothers at risk so we wanted a way to keep people out of the hospital. We can\nprovide guidance on what to do with these sorts of symptoms over the phone and\nsave on hospital visits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who do not have access to the internet can have a loved\u00a0one fill out the contact form on the website using their information and a doctor would call them back by phone.\u00a0For more information or to use the service, visit dialadoc.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kinjal Dagli Shah<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As it gets harder for patients in Ontario to see doctors amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a Toronto doctor is hoping to help. Dr Mark Auspitz, MD, CCFP, has launched Dial-a-Doc, a free website that connects patients in Ontario with doctors for phone appointments. \u201cWhen a patient registers, we match them to a clinic that will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Re","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 16:04:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}