Online Care can help you find a doctor to address any medical concerns or questions. Once you find an available doctor you wish to speak with, you can connect immediately for a live conversation with videoconferencing, secure chat, and more. In this section, you’ll learn how to:

• Find a doctor or specialist to help you with your health concerns.
• Connect with your primary care physician.
• Use automated assessments to find care suggestions.
• Schedule appointments for a later time.
• Enter the waiting room of an unavailable provider.

How to Find a Doctor

From your personalized home page, you can find a doctor by using:

• Quick Connection Buttons: Immediate access to the first available physician of the shown type.
• The Provider Search Tool: Specify search criteria and find a doctor who is right for you.
• My Agenda: Use suggestions from doctors or assessments to find a doctor for identified health concerns.
• Assessments: Find the care you need just by answering an automated questionnaire.

Your PCP

When your primary care physician (PCP) is available, you will receive an alert directly on your personalized home page, notifying you that your PCP is online and available:

Click the alert button to begin connecting with your PCP immediately.

From an assessment

Assessments help you identify and treat health concerns before they become health problems. If you don’t know where to start, you can use the Not Sure Who to Talk To assessment. This assessment will help you find common health and wellness risks, and help you address them appropriately:

My Agenda

Your My Agenda area allows you to find a doctor for recommended conversations on your To Do List. The To Do List stores suggestions from your online physicians, as well as follow-up recommendations you receive as a result of assessments. For example, if you take an assessment about diabetes, you may receive a suggestion that you talk with an endocrinologist on your To Do List. From your To Do List, just click Connect to First Available to find an appropriate doctor.

How to Use the Quick Connection Buttons

The quick connection buttons give you easy access to three of the most commonly requested provider types:

Clicking one of these buttons will find the first available doctor of that type and start the connection process immediately. Before connecting, you will be able to review the provider’s profile information, add topics for your conversation, and read all applicable release statements on the Review Connection Details screen. For more information, please see Review Connection Details.

How to Use Provider Search

Provider search can help you find and connect with physicians who match specific criteria you provide, such as:

• Gender
• Specialty
• Fluency in a particular language
• Location
• Years of experience
• Hospital affiliations

To get started, click Provider Search in the top navigation links from anywhere within Online Care. To find a doctor, you can use the simple and advanced search tools. Simple search allows you to find a doctor by specialty, gender and communication options. Advanced search enables you to refine your search with more criteria, as shown below:

You can also use the tools on the right to find:

• Preferred Providers: Lists doctors you have marked as preferred after prior conversations or provider searches.
• Recent Providers: Physicians with whom you have had recent conversations.
• Primary Care Provider: Checks to see if your PCP is available.
• Search By Name: Allows you to search for known providers by name.

To search for a doctor, enter criteria for the doctor you would like to find, then click Search. The Matching Providers page shows you the results of your search, sorted by user satisfaction rating:

Browse through the results list to find a doctor to address your needs. Click More Information to see additional information about the doctor, including the doctor’s personalized welcome message.

If you do not find a doctor you would like to speak with, you can change your search criteria by clicking Modify Search. Once you find an available doctor you would like to connect to, click Connect Now to start a live conversation. See Having a Conversation to learn how a live Online Care conversation works.

How to Schedule an Appointment

In addition to immediate conversations, you can use Online Care to schedule appointments with providers you find using the provider search tool. Scheduled appointments work just like normal office visits - just log on about 15 minutes before your appointment is set to begin, and you will be notified automatically when the doctor is ready.

Often, you may want to schedule an appointment with a provider who is busy or offline, rather than waiting for the provider to become available. Once you find a doctor you would like to schedule an appointment with, click the Schedule Appt. link in the provider’s details page:

In the scheduling tool, you can choose any time block that the provider has marked as available. Days with available appointment times are marked in green on the calendar:

After choosing a time for your conversation, you can add a topic to the conversation, which helps the doctor better understand your request. When you have finished setting up your appointment, click Schedule Appointment. Once the appointment is scheduled, you will see it in the Upcoming Appointments area of My Agenda.

How to Use a Waiting Room

Sometimes, a provider you wish to talk to may not be available immediately. However, you can enter the provider’s waiting room, which places you on the wait list for that provider. When it’s your turn in line, you are notified automatically, and you can begin your conversation immediately. To enter a doctor’s waiting room, click Enter Waiting Room from the Matching Providers page:

On the resulting page, you can enter a conversation topic to help the doctor understand the nature of your request:

Once you click Enter Waiting Room, you will join the doctor’s queue. You can view providers that you are waiting for in the waiting room area of My Agenda.

What to Do if Your Request is Declined

Sometimes, a provider may decline your request for a connection. If your request is declined, it may be for one of the following reasons:

• You did not share your health summary.
• The doctor felt you should see a provider in a different specialty.
• You did not add a topic for the conversation.
• The provider is logging off or otherwise occupied.

If your connection is declined, your provider may provide comments and even a suggestion to connect with a different type of doctor:

If your conversation is declined, you can use one of the provider’s suggestions or you can start a new search by clicking the Provider Search tab. If you still want to speak with the provider who declined your conversation, you may be able to schedule an appointment for later.