Telehealth Visits in Southlake, TX

Telehealth at Magnolia means a video visit with Rachael Bowen, NP, the same provider who sees you in the office, with your actual chart open in front of her. It is not a national platform staffed by whoever is online.

What works well on video

• Medication follow-ups and dose adjustments
• Reviewing lab results in depth, which is often better on video than by portal message
• Anxiety and depression follow-ups, where the conversation is the visit
• Blood pressure check-ins when you have home readings
• Rashes, in decent light
• Urinary symptoms in patients with a clear history
• Medication side effects and reactions
• Prescription questions and refill decisions
• Return-to-work and follow-up-after-hospital visits

What needs the office

Anything requiring hands, instruments or a sample.

Sore throat that needs a strep swab. Ear pain that needs a look. Chest or abdominal pain. A new lump. Anything needing a lung or heart exam, a blood draw, a urine sample, an EKG, a joint injection or a vaccine.

We will tell you which category your problem falls into when you call, so you are not paying for a visit that ends with “you need to come in.”

Why it is useful for chronic conditions

The rhythm of managing high blood pressure or diabetes is: change something, wait six weeks, look at the numbers, change something again.

That middle appointment often does not need an exam. If you have home blood pressure readings or a glucose log, a fifteen-minute video visit does the same work as a half-day off work. For patients enrolled in remote patient monitoring, your readings are already in front of us before the call starts.

That combination is genuinely better care, not just more convenient care, because it shortens the time between a problem appearing and a dose changing.

Mental health

A meaningful share of our anxiety and depression follow-ups happen on video, and patients tend to prefer it. There is no waiting room, no explaining to a coworker where you are going, and starting a medication is much less daunting when the two-week check-in is a phone call from your kitchen.

More detail on our approach is on the anxiety and depression pages.

Texas rules and where you have to be

Texas requires that you be physically located in Texas at the time of a telehealth visit, and it treats a properly conducted video visit as establishing a valid provider-patient relationship.

Practically, that means we cannot see you by video while you are traveling out of state. If you are away and something comes up, call us anyway. We can often advise, and we can help you find appropriate local care.

Privacy

Video visits run on a platform covered by a business associate agreement. Please do not send health details by ordinary email or text, because neither is secure. Use the portal or call the office.

Booking

Choose the telehealth option when you schedule, or call and ask. If we think your problem needs the office instead, we will say so and offer you an in-person slot rather than taking the booking anyway.

See our same-day sick visits page for urgent problems, or read about our primary care Southlake practice.

Getting the most out of a video visit

A few things make a fifteen-minute video visit considerably more useful.

• Take your vitals first. If you have a blood pressure cuff, a thermometer, a pulse oximeter or a scale, use them before the call and have the numbers written down.
• Sit somewhere with light in front of you, not behind you. A window at your back turns you into a silhouette, which matters a great deal if we are looking at a rash.
• Have your medication bottles within reach. Not a list from memory.
• Write your questions down beforehand. People forget them on video even more reliably than in person.
• Use headphones if anyone else is home. It is your privacy, and it makes it easier to speak freely.

If the connection fails

It happens. If video drops and will not come back, we finish by phone. You are not charged twice and you do not lose your slot.

If the problem turns out to need an exam, we convert the visit and get you an in-person appointment, usually the same week. You are not billed for both.