Group Calls in the Clinic Waiting Area
Conduct Group Calls with up to 20 participants in the Clinic Waiting Area
Waiting Area Group Calls are available in the Clinic Waiting Area for any Video Calls that require larger groups up to 20 participants. Example use cases for group calls are group therapy sessions and multidisciplinary consultations. Group calls have the same functionality as other Waiting Area calls and use minimal bandwidth and processing power. Some of the advantages of holding group calls in the Waiting Area are that all team members can see the call information for the group call in progress when they sign in, waiting callers can be sent messages in their wait screen and the calls appear in clinic waiting area usage reports.
Group calls have all the same functionality available in standard Video Calls, including Apps & Tools (excluding Add A Video and Share A File, which are not compatible with Group calls), Call Manager, Chat, and Settings. To find out what you can do in the Video Call screen, click here.
Please note, clinic team members also have the option of using Group Rooms for group calls in their clinic, if they have been set up by the clinic administrator. Group rooms are separate units within the Video Call organisational structure of the clinic (group calls in Group Rooms do not show as waiting area calls). Click here for more information regarding using Group Rooms.
Watch the short demonstration video:
Please find the shareable link for the video here.
Start a Group Call in the Clinic Waiting Area
Group calls in the Waiting area are easy to set up and participate in. Patients/clients and other required guests are invited to the waiting area using your current processes for sending the clinic link along with any other information regarding the appointment. The required waiting and on-hold participants can then be selected from the list of callers in the waiting area and the group call can be joined. Please see below for steps:
| Send out the appointment information using your current processes, including the clinic link for accessing the waiting area. You may also have a button on your website for patient/client access. |  |
| Invited callers use the clinic link to arrive in the clinic waiting area prior to the appointment time. In this example there are 7 waiting callers in the clinic waiting area. |
 |
| At the top right of the list of callers in the waiting area, there is a group call icon (highlighted in this screenshot). |  |
| Click on the group call icon and selection boxes will appear to the left of all waiting and on hold callers in the waiting area. |
 |
| Select the waiting callers and any on hold callers you would like to join in a group call. Remember there may be callers waiting or on hold to see other health service providers in your team, so you just need to know the names of the people you would like in the group call. In this example we have selected 7 waiting participants for the call. |  |
| When ready to join the selected participants, click the Join [number of] participants button at top right above the list of callers. The call begins and the screen opens in a new tab or window in your browser (depending on your browser settings). You will see all selected participants in the call. |
 |
| If call confirmation is enabled in your clinic, when you click Join x participants you will see a confirmation screen. To confirm, click Join at the bottom of the confirmation box to join the call. The call begins and the screen opens in a new tab or window in your browser (depending on your browser settings). You will see all selected participants in the call. |
 |
| Once the group call starts, the call will show as a being seen call in the Waiting Area. The main name associated with the call in this view at the waiting area level is the first person you clicked on when selecting the required participants. In this example we selected Sue Smith first. |
 |
| If you need to add other waiting or on hold callers to the Group Call once it has been joined, navigate back to the Waiting Area (which is open in a separate tab or window in your browser) and use the Add button to add them to your call. Click here for more information about adding participants to the call. Please note: You can also add one group call to another group call using the Add button in the waiting area. |
 |
| To see information in the waiting area about the call participants click on the 3 dots and select Participants. This is the same process for all Waiting Area calls. You will see participant names and information regarding their device, browser and bandwidth information. |  |
| You will see participant names and information regarding their device, browser and bandwidth information. This example shows Caroline Martin selected in the list of participants. |  |
