My family has talked about moving back to the Northwest since we came to the Bay Area ten years ago, after I graduated from medical school and my husband completed his PhD. With our kids starting Kindergarten and 2nd grade in the fall, my husband and I have decided to relocate our family to Portland, Oregon this summer before the start of the new school year.
It has been a difficult decision to make for many reasons – the most difficult being I’ve worked hard to build Naturopathic Family Health from a solo operation, when I was both practitioner and administrative support, into a strong, multi-practitioner, multi-staff, integrative medicine clinic with a reputation for providing high quality patient care. I love my work. I truly enjoy working with my patients and look forward to helping them navigate health challenges and improve their quality of life.
Thankfully, with advances in technology, using telemedicine and video consultations are an option for many medical providers.
In anticipation of the transition this summer, NFH has been working to implement a solid telemedicine platform that allows patients to continue to meet with me through a secure video platform on their computer, tablet or smartphone. It’s very simple to use – you just log into your patient portal, click on your appointment link and a video screen pops up. Amazing! We have received very positive feedback from patients who have opted for telemedicine visits over the past six months. The most common comment is that the telemedicine visits provide greater flexibility for you when scheduling appointments. I’ve seen patients from all over – from their homes, conference rooms at work, and abroad while travelling. I’ve even met with a patient while she was on her lunchtime walk! The telemedicine platform also allows me to share my screen with you so we can still review lab reports and treatment plans together during the appointment.
There have been a number of other changes at Naturopathic Family Health over the past several months. Dr. Caitlan Gignac joined us last fall and has been working on building her practice. Many of you may have met her when she first started and was shadowing me during my patient visits. Dr. Rebecca Green joined us as our Co- Medical Director at the beginning of the year and will be working with me to manage our ever-growing practice. Last but certainly not least, Taylor Alexander took on the Office Manager position last month, allowing our resident nutritionist, Jill Borba, to focus on her growing nutrition practice. Rest assured that our expanding team continues to work together to provide our patients with the highest quality medical care and patient service.
For my patients whom I have not had the opportunity to talk to about this transition in person, we know you may have questions about transitioning to telemedicine this summer. Please feel free to reach out to the NFHstaff or myself with your questions. We have included some details below so you can learn more about my transition.
If you’d like to setup a short telemedicine demonstration with our Office Manager, Taylor, please call the office or send her a message.
I look forward to continuing to be part of your healthcare team!
Jen Jewell-Larsen, ND
We are aiming to make this transition as seamless as possible. Here are the details:
- Beginning July 2019, most return visits with Dr. Jewell-Larsen will be via telemedicine.
- She will be available for limited in-person appointments at our clinic in Willow Glen three days a month.
- She will be available for telemedicine visits during her regular business hours of 9am to 6pm Tuesday/Thursday and 10am to 3pm Wednesday.
- The Willow Glen office and dispensary will remain open during regular business hours, Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm.
- You can choose to have your visit over video, using our telemedicine platform via Zoom, or with a traditional phone call.
- Acute visits will be triaged by our staff and will either be in-person with Dr. Su or Dr. Gignac at our clinic, or will be co-managed with Dr. Jewell-Larsen.
- Pediatric patients needing in-person care will either be scheduled with Dr. Jewell-Larsen when she is in San Jose or with one of our other providers.
