אמר רבי אחא בר חנינא כל המבקר חולה נוטל אחד משישים בצערו...כי אתא רב דימי אמר כל המבקר את החולה גורם לו שיחיה.
§ Returning to the topic of visiting the ill, the Gemara states: It is taught in a baraita: The mitzva of visiting the ill has no fixed measure. The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of: Has no fixed measure? Rav Yosef thought to say: There is no fixed measure for the granting of its reward. Abaye said to him: And do all other mitzvot have a fixed measure for the granting of their reward? But didn’t we learn in a mishna (Avot 2:1): Be as meticulous in the observance of a minor mitzva as a major one, as you do not know the granting of reward for mitzvot. Rather, Abaye said: There is no fixed measure for the disparity between the ill person and his visitor, as even a prominent person pays a visit to a lowly person and should not say that doing so is beneath a person of his standing. Rava said: There is no fixed measure for the number of times that one should visit the ill, as even one hundred times a day is appropriate. Rav Aḥa bar Ḥanina said: Anyone who visits an ill person takes from him one-sixtieth of his suffering. The Sages said to him: If so, let sixty people enter to visit him, and stand him up, and restore him to health. Rav Aḥa bar Ḥanina said to them: It is like the tenths of the school of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who said that each of one’s daughters inherits one-tenth of his possessions. His intent was that each daughter would receive one-tenth of the remainder after the previous daughter took her portion. Here too, each visitor takes from the ill person one-sixtieth of the suffering that remains, and consequently a degree of suffering will always remain with the ill person. Furthermore, visiting is effective in easing the suffering of the ill person only when the visitor is one born under the same constellation as the ill person.
Story Time: From 'Holy Brother'
In 1973, Rav Shlomo was asked to visit the wounded and sick soldiers in the Yom Kippur War. Their was one particular room which the nurses kept skipping.
Rav Shlomo asked why, and the nurses responded that it was a hopeless situation.
The man had been a "vegetable" for years. Rav Shlomo immediately walked into the room and started playing soft guitar melodies for the man. Suddenly the man starting blinking and reacting to the music. The nurses rushed in to see the miracle, and not too long afterwards the man made a full recovery!
From A Tzaddik in Our Time
Once an instructor’s child was sick and the teacher and his wife were staying up every night to care for their child. R’ Aryeh and his wife came to visit, telling them to go to sleep, as R' Aryeh and his wife have to talk over something very important, away from the home.
Another time there was a boy named Alex, whom the doctors had despaired of.
One night R’ Aryeh came to visit, and in the morning the child was on his way to recovery to doctors amazement.
Once R’ Aryeh used the 'Goral Hagra' on one his students who was deathly ill and worrying himself to death. The deciding paragraph was 38:5 “Behold I will add 15 years to your days. R’ Aryeh told him he’d live 15 more years…and so he did!
The Sick Man's Visit:
When Rav Shlomo was in the hospital, he would go around singing and strengthening the heart of the sick people around the hospital. When the doctors told Rav Shlomo that he should rest, he responded that he specifically had to visit the sick now, that he himself was sick. This way, seeing that he shared in their plight, the sick peoplke would be able to connect to him in a whole new way!
R' Aryeh's Empathy
R’ Aryeh Levine would visit the sick every Friday.
1st he would speak to the nurses to see which patients had no visitors.
He would linger with these people, caressing their hands and giving them words of encouragement.
On Rosh Chodesh, at the 'leper's hospital', he took on new relatives, so that guards wouldn't hit the lepers, and he would bring his "family' presents.
He would read Chumash and Rashi to them.
And He would come on Rosh Hashana and blow shofar for them.
Once word got out to R’ Aryeh that a certain extremely pious and kind widow, Rivkah Weiss, was deatly sick.
He went straight to the hospital wing and screamed out to Hashem:
“The women is a poor widow trying to raise her children. How can you sentence her to lose her life. Be merciful and compassionate!'
And so he continued for a half hour, oblivious to all who walked past.
A half hour passed by and Rivkah Weiss, opened her eyes, then she asked for water and some food. The next days saw her slow but steady recovery to complete health, to the amazement of the physicians who attended her.
There was no medical explanation for her return to health.
Someone once asked Rav Aryeh: “What is your secret?”
“I just listen to them patiently. I reveal a touch of empathy, share there troubles and sick people sense it and respond.”
On the flip side:
Once someone visited a chassidic rebbe, in a quick in and out visit, the rebbe rebuked sharply "i'm not your Cheftza Shel Mitzvah!
רמא::וכל שביקר ולא ביקש עליו רחמים לא קיים המצוה) (ב"י בשם הרמב"ן):
(ה) כשמבקש עליו רחמים אם מבקש לפניו יכול לבקש בכל לשון שירצה:
(4) One must not visit the sick during the first three hours of the day, — for every invalid's illness is alleviated in the morning and [consequently] one will not trouble himself to pray15Lit. ‘to ask for mercy.’ for him; and not during the last three hours of the day, — for then his illness grows worse and one will give up hope to pray for him.16Ned. ibid. This is not a prohibition but only general advice. Hence, people are not particular with respect to this requirement — A.H. Gloss: One who visited [a sick person] and did not pray for him has not fulfilled the religious duty [of visiting the sick].17B.Yos. citing N (in T.H.) — G.
(5) When one prays for him, — if in his presence,18e., the invalid’s. one may pray in any language one desires; if one prays, not in his presence,18e., the invalid’s. one should pray only in Hebrew.19Shab. ibid. according to which the Divine Presence is with the invalid and supports him (v. supra n. 12). Hence, the visitor may pray in any language since he is in the presence of God. But when he is not in the presence of the invalid he requires the angel’s intercession who according to tradition understands only Hebrew (v. Sot. 33a). This should not be confused with the notion that Judaism advocates praying to angels to intercede on our behalf. The angel merely acts as a carrier of prayers to God. Y.Ber. IX, 1(13a), “If a misfortune befalls a person, he should not cry to Michael or Gabriel, but let him cry to me and I will answer him forthwith, as it is written, ‘whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered’” (Joel III, 5).
You should specifically pray at the bedside of the sick person to stir the sick person's heart.
How can you visit a sick person, when you have an obligation to lear Torah? But since your prayer can’t be offered by anyone else, you are particularly obligated in this Mitzvah.
I might also suggest that you're specific energy and nasal can have a healing effect.
The Chafetz Chayim's Ahavas Chessed (Chapter 3) points out that there also should be a practical element to the visit:
'Bikur' literally means to assess the situation. This could mean
Taking care of the patient’s needs
A)Calling doctors
B) Obtaining medicine
D) Shopping or cleaning his house
D) Making sure the right treatments and decisions are being made by doctors.
(ה) אֵין מְבַקְּרִין אֶת הַחוֹלֶה אֶלָּא מִיּוֹם שְׁלִישִׁי וָהָלְאָה. וְאִם קָפַץ עָלָיו הַחלִי וְהִכְבִּיד מְבַקְּרִין אוֹתוֹ מִיָּד. וְאֵין מְבַקְּרִין אֶת הַחוֹלֶה לֹא בְּשָׁלֹשׁ שָׁעוֹת רִאשׁוֹנוֹת בַּיּוֹם. וְלֹא בְּשָׁלֹשׁ אַחֲרוֹנוֹת. מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהֵן מִתְעַסְּקִין בְּצָרְכֵי הַחוֹלֶה. וְאֵין מְבַקְּרִין לֹא חוֹלֵי מֵעַיִם וְלֹא חוֹלֵי הָעַיִן. וְלֹא מֵחוֹשֵׁי הָרֹאשׁ. מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהַבִּקּוּר קָשֶׁה לָהֶן:
(5) A sick person should be visited only from the third day on. If his illness came on suddenly and his condition has become worse, he should be visited immediately. A patient should not be visited either during the first three hours or the last three hours of the day, because he is being attended to at the time.— —
(ד) אין מבקרין החולה בג' שעות ראשונות של יום...
(4) One must not visit the sick during the first three hours of the day, — for every invalid's illness is alleviated in the morning and [consequently] one will not trouble himself to pray15Lit. ‘to ask for mercy.’ for him; and not during the last three hours of the day, — for then his illness grows worse and one will give up hope to pray for him.16Ned. ibid. This is not a prohibition but only general advice. Hence, people are not particular with respect to this requirement — A.H. Gloss: One who visited [a sick person] and did not pray for him has not fulfilled the religious duty [of visiting the sick].17B.Yos. citing N (in T.H.) — G.
(ט) מבקרין חולי עובדי כוכבים מפני דרכי שלום:
(9) One must visit the sick of the Gentiles in the interests of peace.29Git. 61a. Cf. W.G. a.l.
(א) וירא אליו. לְבַקֵּר אֶת הַחוֹלֶה. אָמַר רַבִּי חָמָא בַּר חֲנִינָא, יוֹם שְׁלִישִׁי לְמִילָתוֹ הָיָה, וּבָא הַקָּבָּ"ה וְשָׁאַל בִּשְׁלוֹמוֹ (בבא מציעא פ"ו):
1) We visit people who are "lower" then us.
2) We don't sit higher then the sick person since Hashem is "chilling" at the head of the sick person!“Hashem will sustain him on the bed of his misery" (Tehillim 41:4)
Lesson 7: Blessings on the Head of the Visitors!
אמר רב כל המבקר את החולה ניצול מדינה של גיהנם...אלא מה שכרו בעוה"ז (תהלים מא, ג) י"י ישמרהו ויחייהו ואושר בארץ ואל תתנהו בנפש אויביו יי' ישמרהו מיצר הרע ויחייהו מן היסורין ואושר בארץ שיהו הכל מתכבדין בו ואל תתנהו בנפש אויביו שיזדמנו לו רועים.
Side Note: Phone Visit better then nothing, but physical visit better...