How to Start a Virtual Psychiatry Clinic? | Telepsychiatry Workflow

3 years ago

First of all, you won’t require any license or permit if you are already doing your practice. 

But the most basic thing you would require to start a virtual psychiatry clinic is a telemedicine or virtual care solution. 

The solution can be mobile-based or web-based.

We offer a white-label, custom and clone telemedicine solution for Canadian healthcare providers. 

We will share more about our telepsychiatry solution later in the blog. 

Let’s now first understand the clinical workflow of a virtual psychiatry clinic. 

Our other useful healthcare IT resources:

Clinical workflow of virtual psychiatry clinic 

1. Appointment booking 

  • A new patient signs up on your telemedicine solution by entering his personal as well as health card details. 

[The built-in mechanism of the telemedicine solution verifies his health card.] 

  • The patient needs to answer a few basic questions related to his current physical and mental state. 
  • The patient can now see the availability of healthcare providers of your clinic (GPs, psychiatrists, sleep disorders specialists, neurologists etc).

[Since the telemedicine solution is integrated with EMR/EHR, it fetches the availability of healthcare providers from that integrated EMR/EHR and shows it to the patient.] 

[For the initial consultation, the telemedicine solution suggests the patient to book an appointment with a GP who may refer patients to specialists when needed to further diagnose or for treatment.]

  • The patient books the appointment. 
  • When it is confirmed by the healthcare provider, the patient gets a confirmation message in SMS or email or push notification.  

[The healthcare provider himself can also book the appointment for his existing patient.]

2. Appointment modification and reminder

  • Both patient and healthcare provider can modify the appointment date and time. 
  • The telemedicine solution reminds both patient and healthcare provider of the upcoming appointment. 

3. Patient intake 

  • The patient can now access the digital intake form from his appointment dashboard. 

[GP or psychiatrist can upload the custom intake form or they can select intake form from available templates within the telemedicine solution itself.] 

  • The patient can get access to the patient intake form 10-15 minutes prior to an appointment with a healthcare provider. 

4. Mental health initial consultation 

  • The patient and healthcare provider with whom the patient has booked the appointment can join the secure video call by clicking on the joining link. 

[They can talk via chat and voice calls too. But it is recommended to have video calls as the only medium of communication for the first encounter.] 

  • The healthcare provider - be it GP or Psychiatrist - has easy access to all clinical information of patients - thanks to EMR/EHR integration with the telemedicine solution. 

[Clinical information includes allergies, previous medical notes, previous prescriptions, vital body signs, etc.] 

You should read this: AthenaHealth EHR integration and marketplace integration

5. Medical note-taking 

  • The healthcare provider who is having video consultation with the patient can write the medical notes simultaneously.  

[He can add the custom medical note or select from the medical note templates.]  

  • The healthcare provider can also access the historic medical notes of a patient. 
  • Every medical note gets stored under each patient’s profile which is accessible easily in the future. 

6. Prescribing the patient  

  • Healthcare providers can write the ePrescription. 

[They can explore the drug directory and select a drug to add it into ePrescription.] 

[They can also mark a drug as their favourite and easily add it to ePrescription from the favourite list.] 

[The telemedicine solution adds patient details and prescriber details automatically in the ePrescription which is in PDF format.] 

7. Pharmacy selection and medication delivery

  • The telemedicine solution shows the list of nearby or partnered pharmacies to the patient. 
  • Once a patient selects a pharmacy, the solution automatically eFax the prescription to that selected pharmacy.  

[The patient can select between pick-up or doorstep delivery options.] 

8. Referral 

  • If primary care providers including GPs or psychiatrists feel that the patient requires specialized mental care, they can refer the patient to a secondary care provider with a referral note - even outside their clinic. 

[Primary care providers can search for the specialized care providers from the solution itself.] 

[The telemedicine solution adds all clinical and patient data into the referral note. The primary care providers only need to write the referral message.] 

9. Medication reminder and follow-ups 

  • The telemedicine solution reminds patients to take medicines on time. 
  • It also reminds patients to book follow-up appointments. 

10. Billing 

  • If the telemedicine solution is equipped with built-in OHIP, MSP, AHCIP billing, the providers can submit the claim with appropriate billing codes from the telemedicine solution itself. Otherwise, they need to use 3rd party billing software. 

[Medical care provided by telemedicine is only covered under OHIP, MSP and AHCIP.] 

  • If the patient is not covered, he needs to pay the fee using any of the built-in payment methods such as debit/credit card, eWallet etc. 

You should read this: 8 Ways Telemedicine for Psychiatrists Helps Patients in 2021

You  can provide mental care on this clinical workflow with our white-label telemedicine solution 

We are Ontario-based telemedicine tech and compliance experts and last year we launched the telemedicine white-label solution for Canadian healthcare providers. 

If you are planning to start a virtual psychiatry clinic, this is the most affordable and reliable option. 

  • It is compliant with HIPAA, PHIPA, PIPEDA, PIA and other provincial privacy laws. 
  • It supports customization. 
  • It is a mobile and web-based solution. 
  • You will be the ultimate owner of the source code. 
  • It has built-in referral and billing modules. 

Here are some of its screenshots. 

Just let us know. We will provide you with a live demo along with telemedicine tech and compliance consultation.