By Dr. Saurin Patel, chief of hospitalist medicine and emerging service lines at Access TeleCare
A couple of months ago, I got a call to consult on a critically ill patient in a small community hospital in rural Montana. He was too sick for the facility and needed a higher level of care. But the roads were shut down by a snowstorm. Even the regional transport planes weren’t flying. But the patient needed high-quality, specialty care – fast. And Access TeleCare was a click away.
The patient — understandably — was skeptical about virtual care. He asked me straight out:
“Where are you? How does this work? Are you even trained to do this over video?”
This wasn’t just about the tech. It was about trust.
I answered every question. I explained my training, my role, what I could and couldn’t do, and how I’d be working with the team at his bedside. He was guarded — but he listened. His inquiry was not a cross-examination. Patients don’t deal in medicine or health care every day like we do, and these experiences are unique instances where, to varying degrees, their health, wellness, and well-being are at risk. Patients like this one should access whatever they can to try to verify that the care they are receiving is the right care, and it should be the job of every physician to take the time to invest in this way to forge trust.
I did what we always train for at Access TeleCare: I focused on connection. I got to know him. He mentioned he was originally from Texas, and we talked about my time here in Austin and Dallas. We joked a little. I made sure he felt like there was a real person on the other side of the screen — not just a diagnosis machine.
Over the course of the night, we stabilized him. He started to feel better. More than that — he started to relax. Let his guard down.
A few hours later, one of the nurses texted me something I’ll never forget.
“That patient just told me, ‘That’s one smart son of a gun. I never thought you could do this with that technology.’”
That’s the moment we’re all aiming for: leaving patients with delight to the point of surprise and awe.
What changed? Not the screen. Not the snowstorm. The care didn’t suddenly get better — the connection did.
This is exactly why Access TeleCare trains every provider in Breaking Through the Screen™️. It’s about how we introduce ourselves. How we talk. How we slow down enough to earn trust — even when time is tight.
When a patient feels like they’re being taken seriously, like someone is present with them, they let us in. They accept the plan. They follow through.
That patient didn’t need to be transferred. He stayed. He got better. And I got to help, thanks to a screen that, in the end, wasn’t a barrier at all.
That’s what Breaking Through the Screen™️ makes possible.
