What is healthdirect Video Call?

Video Call is a secure video consulting service purpose-built for health consultations. Our suite of services, tools, applications and resources makes it easy for clinicians to say, “Yes, you can attend your consultation via video.” Accessed wholly via the web, it is available to use anywhere, on everyday devices with a good internet connection and there are no software or application downloads necessary. The Video Call service is delivered by Healthdirect Australia through the support of Commonwealth and state health departments. As Video Call is government funded it is free to use for eligible health services and their staff.

Video Call is easy to use and health consumers can connect with their healthcare professional from their home, work, or wherever is most convenient, using everyday devices – a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. Video Call is a complete telehealth ecosystem knitting the 3 interconnected layers (Technology, Administration management and Service Development and Operation) seamlessly together. The image below illustrates this ecosystem:

The bottom layer: represents the technology stack – the part that makes video calling possible and for one person to see the other(s).  A 1:1 social chat platform is little more than this, with some controls (such as mute and end call) overlaid for users. 

The middle layer: represents a clinician/patient encounter where Video Call has been specifically designed to be simple and secure to use and to support an administrator when monitoring and managing large clinics. Corporate video-conferencing systems, where meeting rooms are created are often designed around users having an account using a special created link or security pin code. Video Call simplifies this and makes it relevant to the health sector by using the virtual Waiting Area model, where patients enter the online clinic, and staff can manage the queue – resembling the physical clinic.

The top layer: Video Call includes online resources, providing information on how to design and set up a video telehealth extension to health services. There is an expert service support team to assist with implementation and onboarding, offer ongoing guidance, ensure smooth operation, develop applications and manage user feedback into further iterations of the platform.

How does Video Call work?

Video Call provides a consistent entry point for all patients, where they enter an online waiting area for their appointment. This entry point can be a button on the health service's website or the clinic waiting area link can be texted or emailed to patients quickly and easily,

Patients attend appointments via their health service's online clinic and wait in their own secure video room in the clinic waiting area. Unlike traditional video conferencing no account, special software or dial-in details are needed, which reduces the need for extra resources or systems to support video consulting.

Clinicians prepare to engage with their patients as normal, and join patients via the clinic’s online waiting area instead of its physical one.

Staff manage their clinics as usual. Video appointments are handled through existing processes and systems and are run like any other consultation. Clinic staff are notified when a patient arrives in the online waiting area and they can even transfer patients to other specialist clinics online.

Health Services have access to all the support, advice and resources they need to help with set-up, adoption and use of Video Call.

Find out more about Video Call
Visit: https://about.healthdirect.gov.au/video-call

For more information on how Video Call is different click here.