Hospital group offers free virtual health care during Milton

AdventHealth Centra Care will offer free virtual urgent care to people during Hurricane Milton.

The health care group’s urgent care arm will provide medical services through its mobile app starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday Oct. 9 and allow patients to access it until 8 p.m. Oct. 10. Patients will have to punch in the code Milton to avoid payment.

An AdventHealth spokesperson says it will have providers from across Central Florida on hand during the storm and, since the consultations will be held via cell phone, expected power outages should not affect access.

“We recommend that patients download the AdventHealth App to their phones in advance in case of a need for an urgent care video visit,” the spokesperson says in an email.

For the past decade, the nonprofit community health and hospital system has offered free urgent care video visits as hurricanes raged, most recently serving close to 400 patients in need during Hurricane Helene.

Timothy Hendrix, AdventHealth Centra Care’s medical director, says through the spokesperson that historically hurricane related injuries include puncture wounds — from people stepping on nails, roofing nails and debris — and cuts and abrasions.

“All those types of things we would commonly see in an urgent care we’re going to see more of during and after a hurricane,” Hendrix says.

He recommends people get a tetanus shot before the storm and that they keep a first aid kit handy.