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IU Health Virtual Care app helps ID positive case of coronavirus

IU Health virtual screenings identify positive case of coronavirus

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — IU Health’s virtual screenings for the coronavirus have proven to be successful.

The program was launched Saturday afternoon and has already helped identify one positive case of the virus in central Indiana.

The screenings can be found in the IU Health Virtual Care mobile app. It connects you with a nurse to help screen you for coronavirus. The nurse will ask you if you have traveled internationally and most importantly if you have been around someone who has been positively diagnosed. The nurse will then take all that information and refer you to a doctor to be tested.

IU Health say it screened more than 300 people on Monday.

The health care provider says the virtual visits have been well received because the app allows people to talk with a medical professional without leaving their home.

Dr. Michele Saysana of IU Health said, “It’s been really positive. We have had a number of patients who have called that didn’t screen positive for either, but were just happy to have had the opportunity to talk to somebody to see whether or not they needed to be tested. And so I think it’s been overwhelmingly positive.”

Since the launch of the virtual screenings on Saturday the response has been overwhelming. Authorities say the number of nurses working with the app has gone up significantly because of how many people want to be screened.