Urinary Pain
For many patients, Connect Care can be a great place for evaluation of urinary pain. Depending on your age and gender, a provider may be able to diagnose a urinary tract infection (UTI) and prescribe an antibiotic.
Adult women: Connect Care can often provide thorough evaluation and treatment of urinary symptoms for adult women with urinary symptoms. While a UTI is the most common cause of urinary pain in adult women, kidney infections can be serious if not treated quickly. If you are experiencing fever, mid-back pain, other alarming symptoms, or have a history of antibiotic-resistant infections, a Connect Care provider may recommend in-person evaluation to determine if it’s a kidney infection. If you’re not experiencing these symptoms, a provider may issue an antibiotic prescription to treat a simple UTI.
Adult men: In adult men, the evaluation of urinary pain is more complicated than it is in women. Typical urinary tract infection is far less common, and other issues (such as kidney stone or prostate infection) are far more likely. To make the correct diagnosis, in-person evaluation and laboratory testing is typically required. As a result, Connect Care providers will refer all men with urinary symptoms to in-person sites of care for evaluation and testing.
Children: Urinary pain in children can be caused by a variety of medical issues. Because of the complexity of diagnosing urinary pain in children, our providers would likely refer a child to in-person evaluation and testing.
Low Back Pain
Connect Care is a great place to get an evaluation of mild to moderate low back pain. There are some symptoms (such as trauma, fever, excruciating pain, inability to walk, serious numbness in your legs, and a few others) that raise red flags about serious causes of back pain. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, in-person evaluation is probably best. But if you aren’t experiencing any of these symptoms, a provider can conduct an evaluation and recommend initial treatment.
Note: Providers do not issue prescriptions for controlled substances (such as opiate pain medications), but providers can discuss other options for pain control while your recover.
Connect Care is not right for you if:
You're Experiencing Emergency Symptoms
Connect Care is not intended for treatment of emergency medical problems. The American College of Emergency Physicians identifies several important symptoms that should lead to evaluation in the closest emergency department. If you’re experiencing any of the following, please call 911 or go to the ER:
- Difficulty breathing, shortness of breath
- Chest or upper abdominal pain or pressure lasting two minutes or more
- Fainting, sudden dizziness, weakness
- Changes in vision
- Difficulty speaking
- Confusion or changes in mental status, unusual behavior, difficulty walking
- Any sudden or severe pain
- Uncontrolled bleeding
- Severe or persistent vomiting or diarrhea
- Coughing or vomiting blood
- Suicidal or homicidal feelings
- Unusual abdominal pain
You Need a Primary Care Provider or a Refill of a Prescription
Connect Care is a great way to get care for urgent care issues, but taking care of chronic health issues (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma, and others) is not our main focus, so our providers do not generally issue refills of long-term medications. If you are in need of a refill of your ongoing medications, please contact your regular provider. If you are new to the area or need a new primary care provider for any other reason, please visit https://intermountainhealthcare.org/find-a-doctor/ to find a provider in your area.
You're Looking for Pain Medication or Other Controlled Substances
As a matter of law, healthcare providers cannot issue prescriptions for controlled substances without seeing the patient in person. Because Connect Care visits are conducted over video, our providers are strictly prohibited from issuing these sorts of prescriptions. Commonly used controlled substances include medications for pain (hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, Norco, Percocet, Tramadol, etc.), anxiety/panic (alprazolam/Xanax, lorazepam/Ativan, clonazepam/Klonopin, diazepam/Valium etc.), and ADHD (Ritalin, Adderall, etc.). If you are in need of a refill of your ongoing medications, please contact your regular provider for refills. If you don’t have one, see the information above for help finding one.