A unique healthcare venture has opened its first store in Peachtree City.

Patients will enjoy the “after hours” walk-in convenience of Health-e-Station though they won’t be seeing a doctor eye-to-eye.

Instead, the doctor will be on a TV screen via video conference, able to converse with and assess the patient, and write a prescription if necessary, company officials said.

Patients at Health-e-Station will be monitored with specially adapted attachments such as electronic stethoscopes and cameras for examining the throat and ears. All the while, patients will be helped by certified medical assistants, said Health-e-Station CEO Robert Russell.

The company has worked to keep the price per visit under what it would cost for a co-pay for an emergency room visit, Russell said.

In addition, patients will get more convenience than if they went to the ER with such minor maladies, with a wait time of 10 minutes or so, according to the company. Such patients typically experience longer wait times at emergency rooms because of the priority placed on patients with life-threatening and serious medical problems.

Health-e-Station can help patients with a sore throat, earache, minor cough and cold and minor skin rash, among other maladies, including flu, pink eye and ear infections, Russell said. The facility also has equipment to handle minor lab tests.

The store is located in the Braelinn Village shopping center near the Kroger grocery store, which is no accident, Russell said: that’s the only 24-hour pharmacy in town. If a patient needs a prescription, they can get it filled nearby, he noted.

Once a patient is registered in the system, the waiting time for subsequent visits “is most often no more than 10 minutes,” according to the company’s Web site. After the visit, the records will be transmitted electronically to the patient’s primary care doctor.

Health-e-Station also offers a free library of consumer-oriented medical reference books anyone can stay and peruse, and two computers will also soon be up and running providing Web access to medical information.

There’s also a coffee machine for those who want to stay a while and brush up on the material, Russell noted.

The Health-e-Station concept was sparked by Dr. Andy Agwunobi, a pediatrician and immediate past president and CEO of Grady Health System. He worked with the Georgia Research Alliance, a group of scholars from the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia to develop the system.

Health-e-Station is open all night from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. Monday through Friday and on a 24-hour schedule Saturday and Sunday.

For more information, visit www.healthestation.com.

login to post comments