Makati Medical Center teamed up with PayMaya Philippines Inc. to offer “teleconsultation” service amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
“As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. And at times like this where we are facing an unprecedented crisis, our response must be innovative as well. Hopefully, as we pilot this ‘teleconsultation’ service, we are able to provide much-needed expert medical advice to our patients who are staying home while we continue being on the frontline fighting the COVID-19 pandemic here in the Philippines,” said MMC medical director and interim co-chief executive Saturnino Javier.
MMC’s “teleconsultation” service, utilizing the power of mobile and video conferencing in tandem with digital payment technologies, is being piloted by a number of doctors of the hospital, allowing them to provide necessary healthcare advice and consultations even from a location outside their clinic in MMC.
Through technology-aided video conferencing apps such as Zoom which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, both doctors and patients can communicate with each other even from long distances to have quick medical consultations when needed.
Once the consultation is over, patients will receive an SMS from their doctor which will contain details on how they can pay for the consultation fee via their PayMaya account.
Aside from this, each doctor participating in this service will have his/her own PayMaya QR code which they can ask patients to scan using the PayMaya app to pay the teleconsultation fee.
“We are one with Makati Medical Center in looking for solutions that will help address people’s needs during this critical time. By enabling their teleconsultation with digital payments, we allow them to lower the risk of acquiring or spreading the virus among doctors and patients while helping them continue to provide much-needed healthcare services despite the public health situation,” said PayMaya president Shailesh Baldwin.
Patients who want to reach their MMC doctor for medical consultation from the comfort of their home may contact their doctor(s) or MakatiMed on-call at 8888-8999 to check if their doctor provides remote consultation through teleconferencing.
Patients with existing doctor-patient relationship is the minimum eligibility requirement and those who do not require immediate or urgent care.
With the threat of more COVID-19 infections in the horizon for the Philippines, medical facilities and their frontliners need all the help they can get to address the situation—and digital and financial technologies can provide much-needed assistance during this time, according to MMC.
By employing teleconsultation, MMC said it was not only helping promote social distancing but was also ensuring the safety of the patients and the medical staff.