Healthdirect Australia Help Center

    Share waiting area via email or SMS

    What Video Call platform role do I need: Team Member, Team Admin or Organisation Admin

    There are several ways you can invite patients/clients to start a video call and arrive in your clinic Waiting Area at the time of their appointment. You can copy the Waiting Area URL from your dashboard and paste it into a patient information leaflet or into the body of an appointment email. You can also send an email or SMS invitation directly from your Waiting Area dashboard. Follow your usual appointment booking processes and then send the invitation with instructions about when they should initiate the Video Call, so they can be joined by their service provider at the time of their appointment.

    Send an Email or SMS invitation directly from your Waiting Area dashboard

    You can send appointment invitations directly from your clinic dashboard. Please note that the text in these invitations is editable but will return to the default text shown in the below instructions each time you select the Send An Email or SMS button. We have created Email and SMS templates to help make the process of sending appointment information more efficient. Simply click on the desired template below, copy the template wording (to your clipboard) and paste into the pop up invitation box. You can add the doctor and patient names, and appointment date and time (sections highlighted in yellow). You make changes to this text at any time to suit your needs and save in a Word or text document for easy access:

    Email appointment template

    Hi <Patient Name>,

    Confirming the details of your video telehealth appointment with <Doctor's name> as below:

    Appointment Date: <xx/yy/zzzz>

    Appointment Time: <xx:yy AM/PM>

    Clinic Virtual Waiting Area: https://videocall.direct/<clinicname>

     How to get ready for your appointment:

    • Prior to your appointment please conduct a pre-call test to check your computer or device and your internet connection are ready to make Video Calls. Please click on this link to start the test: https://videocall.direct/precall
    • You can use a computer or mobile phone with any modern internet browser including Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari and Firefox.
    • Please enter the Clinic Virtual Waiting Area 5 minutes prior to your appointment time by clicking on the ‘Start the call’ button below.
    • If you have any issues, please email us or call on <phone no.>

    SMS appointment template

    Hi <Patient Name>,

    Confirming the details of your video telehealth appointment with <Doctor's name>:

     Appointment Date: <xx/yy/zzzz>

    Appointment Time: <xx:yy AM/PM>

     How to get ready for your appointment:

    • Follow this link prior to your appointment to check your device can make Video Calls: https://videocall.direct/precall  
    • Use a computer or smart phone with any modern internet browser.
    • Tap on the link below 5 minutes prior to your appointment to enter the clinic waiting area
    • If you have any issues, contact us on <phone no.>

    To email or SMS your patients their appointment invitations:

    Navigate to your Waiting Area dashboard page and in the RHS column look under Waiting Area Settings > Share the link to your waiting area.
    Click on the Copy Link button to copy and paste the Waiting Area URL into a patient leaflet or email and send to your patient/client.
    Click on Send an Email or SMS to send an invitation to your patient/client directly from the Video Call platform
    In the Invite Callers to Waiting Area dialogue box, select either Send Email or Send SMS.
    To send an Email invitation, type in the person's email address and check the default subject and invitation message text. Both of these fields are editable. The Waiting Area link will be added at the bottom of your email text.

    Please note: the invitation message is default text and can be edited before you send the invitation. Please find suggested templates for Email appointment invitations that you can use and modify as required. You can then add this text manually into the Invitation Message section.
    You can tick the box 'Keep information on send' to keep the text you have added to the message available after you press send. This means you can then invite another patient via either SMS or email and send the same message to them. Once you close the invitation dialogue box, the message reverts back to the default text.

    When you are ready, click Send.
    The person will receive an email with the subject and text you have specified and a link to click to Start the call at the time of their appointment (you might want to let them know to do this 5 or 10 minutes before their appointment). Their service provider will see them in the Waiting Area at the designated time and can join the call to start the consultation.
    To send an SMS invitation, type in the person's mobile number - you can use the +61 instead of the 0 at the beginning of the number.
    The default message has the information the caller will need to start the call, but this text is also editable.

    Please note: the invitation message is default text and can be edited before you send the invitation. Please find suggested templates for SMS appointment invitations that you can use and modify as required. You can then add this text manually from your template for each appointment invitation.
    You can tick the box 'Keep information on send' to keep the text you have added to the message available after you press send. This means you can then invite another patient via either SMS or email and send the same message to them. Once you close the invitation dialogue box, the message reverts back to the default text.

    When you are ready, click Send.

    The person will receive an SMS with a link to tap to start the call. Their service provider will see them in the Waiting Area at the designated time and can join the call to start the consultation.



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