Step 4: Conduct a Video Call consultation

Patients

To start a Video Call consultation, a patient clicks on the link that has been provided by the practice or on the button on the practice website. A form will ask for their name and any other information requested by the practice. The patient will then be in their own private waiting area. The patient will see a message from the practice (configured in ‘Waiting area’) and hear music – they can change the type of music they hear to suit their taste. Please watch this short video that shows the patient journey when starting a Video Call to attend their appointment via Video Call.

GPs

When the GP is ready, they sign in to Video Call and will see their clinic waiting area dashboard. They can see their waiting patient and click ‘Join the call’ next to the patient’s name. The GP doesn’t use a ‘Meeting room’ or ‘User room’ for health consultations – they simply join their patient’s call from the Waiting Area. (Meeting rooms and User rooms are used for meetings with other health professionals or other guests, they are not designed to be used for a video consultation with a patient.)

See step-by-step instructions (with screenshots) for how to join a video call.

While in the video consultation, the GP may want to do a range of things they do during a face-to-face consultation such as show the patient test results, draw a diagram, provide the name of a medicine they need to get or even get another health professional to join the consultation. All these things can also be done during a video consultation using a range of tools.

See step-by-step instructions (with screenshots) for how to use the tools available in healthdirect Video Call.

Information for health professionals

We have some quick guides that you can download and/or print for your GPs including:

GPs and other team members can watch this video (5:27) to see how easy it is to use healthdirect Video Call.

Waiting area alerts

Each team member can set up their own waiting area alerts. This is done from within the waiting area in the right-hand panel (it is not done through ‘Configure’).

Waiting area alerts can be sent by SMS, email or desktop notifications. Waiting area alerts are sent for all waiting patients not just for a particular GP’s patients.

If you have a large practice, you can set up clinics for individual GPs. Patients still log into the practice clinic but then the receptionist would transfer them to their GP’s clinic. Contact your PHN liaison person if you need a new clinic set up.

Troubleshooting

If there are difficulties during a Video Call, our troubleshooting guide will answer most of your concerns. If the troubleshooting guide doesn’t help you, there are other forms of support.

The Resource Centre that you are now in includes many step-by-step instructions, videos and downloads. Feel free to browse these resources or use the search function to find what you are looking for.