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.
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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.