From zero to 200,000: That’s how many telehealth visits Florida’s largest independent physician group, Millennium Physician Group, has hit just ten months after launching its telehealth platform MPG Connect to combat the spread of COVID-19.
“As of 3 pm February 1st, we have surpassed 200,000 telehealth visits since March 23, 2020,” announced Millennium Chief Innovation Officer Jeffrey Nelson. “That’s an average of more than 20,000 per month since the pandemic took hold!”
What’s exceptional about Millennium’s telehealth service, MPG Connect, is that it connects Millennium’s almost half a million patients with their physicians, which is a departure from most telehealth services that use third-party healthcare providers who don’t know the patients nor have their medical records on hand.
“MPG Connect is invaluable,” says Millennium Chief Medical Officer Alejandro Perez-Trepichio, MD. “Telehealth is the tool that allows us to strengthen the patient-provider relationship during this understandably concerning time while preserving our patients’ continuity of care.”
Early on in the COVID-19 crisis, Millennium Physician Group launched its telehealth service in just one week’s time, a feat that is virtually unheard of and is now conducting anywhere from 500 to more than 1,350 virtual visits a day across the state using its proprietary platform – one that it built from the cloud down in Southwest Florida.
“This is one of the many innovations we’d already been working on,” explains Nelson. “We just pushed it to the forefront once it became imperative the medical community come up with solutions to manage the COVID-19 Pandemic.” In March of 2020, federal health authorities called on the healthcare providers to provide the telehealth options to help slow the spread of the pandemic.
Millennium’s telehealth service in now available to new and existing patients, whether sick or well. All patients need is an MPG Connect appointment and a computer, smartphone or tablet. A call to the nearest Millennium doctor’s office or to (844) CALL-MPG, or a visit to Millennium’s website MillenniumPhysician.com connects patients with the MPG Connect platform.