You can start a video call with any patient at your GP practice using the Patchs toolbar, or from the request details page when responding to a patient request.
Video calling works with both smartphones (via SMS and email) and desktop computers (via email).
You can video call any patient on your practice list irrespective of whether they have registered for a Patchs account.
Video calling from the Toolbar
You can video call a patient from the Patchs toolbar, by selecting your patient in the clinical system and clicking on the video camera icon.
You will be taken to the Patient details page in Patchs, for the patient currently loaded in the clinical system.
On the Patient page, 'Video call patient' will be pre-selected and you should click the 'Send invitation' button.
By default this will send an email to the patient to reduce SMS costs. The email will contain a secure link to the video consultation. If you want to send the secure link via SMS instead, tick the 'Send as SMS' box.
Once the invitation has been sent to the patient, you will be taken to the video consultation page where you can join the call.
Video calling a patient using a one-off mobile phone number
If you want to send the video invitation to a number other than their usual mobile number, you can update the 'Send as SMS to' with the desired mobile number before sending the invitation.
The video call invitation will be sent to the 'Send as SMS to' mobile number, but this number will not replace the patient's regular mobile phone number in Patchs.
Video calling from a patient request
You can also video call a patient when reviewing and managing a patient request.
From the request details page, navigate to the 'Video' tab, then click the 'Video call patient' button.
By default this will send an email to the patient to reduce SMS costs. If you want to send the secure link via SMS, tick the 'Send as SMS' box. The email/SMS will contain a secure link to the video consultation.
Clicking on the link will take you to the video consultation page, where you can join the call.
During the video call
You will be taken to the video consultation page where you can consult with the patient.
The patient will be held in a virtual waiting room until you are ready.
The patient will appear in the main screen, and you will see yourself in the small window in the top right corner. You can mute yourself, turn off the camera and end the consultation using the buttons on the right.
You can message the patient with links or attachments in the usual way during the video call, by having the Patient page open on another browser tab at the same time.
To complete a request, click the 'End' button to stop the video consultation. Doing this will take you to the 'Consultation Ended' page:
If you click the 'Consultation completed' button you will see the screen below. The video consultation will be coded in the clinical system with the following SNOMED code: 719410009 Consultation via video conference.
If you click 'Consultation unsuccessful', then you will see the following screen. No codes will be saved to the clinical system:
What the patient sees
The patient will receive an email or SMS (depending on your choice) with a secure link to the video consultation.
| SMS | |
The patient should click on the link to load the video consultation in their internet browser.
To access the video consultation they will need to provide some extra information to verify their identity:
- If they are a registered Patchs user they will need to log in.
- If they are a non-Patchs user they will just need to confirm the date of birth.
The patient will then be held in a waiting room until you are ready for the video consultation.
