SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 8, 2014) - Grand Rounds, a company that delivers world-class outcomes to patients by connecting them with the top medical specialists in the country, today launched an Office Visits service that helps people identify the best physicians within their geographic area.
Typically people have had to rely on Google, Yelp, Facebook, or their own personal network when finding a new doctor. This approach can not only be time consuming and tedious, but also dangerous: individual consumers are not always the best equipped to evaluate who is a "good doctor," and end up seeing doctors who are solid generalists but unable to apply "state of the art" care when required. As a result, patients can find themselves part of truly frightening statistics; more than $1.3 billion wasted trying to fix the 4,000 surgical errors and ill-advised medical treatments that occur annually.
The Grand Rounds Office Visit service is built around a proprietary algorithm that identifies the top physicians nationwide. In most regions, the gap in quality between the average doctor and the best one in the area is significant; for example, the Grand Rounds algorithm recommends cardiac surgeons that have 40 percent lower mortality rates over a six-year time period. Similarly, patients who saw orthopedic surgeons recommended by Grand Rounds experienced 20 percent fewer complications after joint replacement surgeries. The algorithm is highly customized to each individual medical specialty, but evaluates factors including training background, institution, publication history, and patient outcomes.
Key benefits for patients include:
- The ability to only have doctors recommended who fall within the patient's insurance network.
- All appointment setting and logistics handled by Grand Rounds -- even having medical records forwarded. All the patient has to do is show up.
- Follow up with the patient by Grand Rounds on-staff physicians to ensure quality of care and an outstanding experience.
"There's no reliable way of finding a quality doctor for a specialized medical condition, and so people rely on Internet search -- which is a truly scary thing," said Owen Tripp, co-founder & CEO of Grand Rounds. "Patients need an immediate, reliable way of knowing which outstanding doctors are within travel distance and within the right insurance network. We launched Office Visits to fill a critical gap that separates the top physicians in the country from the patients who need them. By removing guesswork, we save lives."
Office Visits in Action
Ricardo Rueda, 79, had been living with an array of mysterious symptoms for over nine years -- chronic fatigue, decreased tolerance for exercise and activity, shortness of breath and hyperventilation -- before he used Grand Rounds Office Visits to finally get a firm diagnosis. Grand Rounds scheduled Ricardo to see Dr. Stephen Paget, an internationally recognized rheumatologist in New York City.
"Many times patients run out of options and it seems like there is no answer to an illness. Grand Rounds opens the door for new possibilities -- which is especially wonderful for people who typically lack access to top physicians," said Sandra, a close friend of Ricardo who helped manage his care.
Rheumatologists are one of the more uncommon medical specialties with only about 5,000 practicing in the U.S., and great rheumatologists are even fewer and far between. As the Physician-in-Chief Emeritus at the Division of Rheumatology at Hospital for Special Surgery, Dr. Paget has been treating patients for 45 years and one of the top specialists in his field.
"Patients deserve to be taken care of with the best minds and technology. This is what Grand Rounds does. I love being connected with new patients and taking on complicated cases that require true expertise. Everyone deserves access to the best care possible, but not everyone knows where to go," said Dr. Paget.
The service is available to consumers for $200 per Visit, and packages are also available for employers. More information can be found at http://www.grandroundshealth.com/patient/visit/
About Grand Rounds
Grand Rounds is an Outcomes Management platform that delivers the best healthcare outcomes for employees at the lowest possible cost to employers. It does this by providing an end-to-end solution that connects patients with highly specialized care informed by latest best practices -- preventing complications, multiple surgeries, and failed treatments. Grand Rounds helps get employees back to work faster, while employers reap the benefits of lower medical costs and higher employee productivity. For more information, visit http://www.grandroundshealth.com.