Clinical eVisits

The following information is to assist KHSC Healthcare Providers (physicians, allied health professionals, residents), medical secretaries, and administrative support staff.

If at any time you need assistance with Clinical eVisits, email @email

What are Clinical eVisits?

Clinical eVisits are appointments administered on a secure videoconferencing platform between a healthcare provider(s) and patient. Clinical eVisits enable healthcare providers to easily connect to their patients and colleagues, no matter where the patient or colleague is located. Conducting appointments this way offers flexibility to providers, patients, and healthcare organizations.

What are my Clinical eVisit options at KHSC?

Alternative to Clinics or Clinical eVisits

  • If attendees to an appointment are experiencing issues and are unable to resolve those issues and join the appointment, the appointment will proceed as a telephone consultation
    • Best practice: If a healthcare provider needs to call a patient from outside the hospital phone lines, ensure you block your number by entering *67 before dialing the patient’s phone number. This will display your number as “Private” to ensure the patient does not know your personal phone number OR on your cell phone, by disabling their Caller ID on their cell (i.e. iPhone Settings >Phone>Show Caller ID)


Getting signed up for Clinical eVisits

Healthcare Providers are encouraged to sign-up for both OTN and Reacts.

Reacts

KHSC is providing healthcare providers and delegated administrative support with access to Reacts. A Reacts Project team will assign Pro accounts or Guest accounts based on need.

Before you start the process of accessing Reacts, first ensure you have all of the system requirements:

  • To review System Requirements for Reacts, click here.

To access your Pro Account, you will receive an email from Reacts and then follow the instructions provided here:

Reacts can be accessed on any of the following platforms:

  • Desktop application;
  • Reacts website via Google Chrome; or,
  • Mobile app (Tablet or Smartphone)

To be best supported by KHSC’s React Support Team, Pro Account users are asked to use the Reacts website via Google Chrome for best experience.

OTN

  • If you are already using eConsult on the OTN platform, you are set up to do Clinical eVisits on the OTN platform, so you can continue using OTN
  • If you would like to learn more about OTN and learn how to sign-up, click here to access SEAMO’s digital health eVisits webpage


How to use Reacts

KHSC and Reacts have the following educational tools available:

To access full directory of tutorials provided by Reacts, click here.


Additional resources for person booking Clinical eVisits

When communicating with the patient, we ask that you use the following tools:

  • Phone Script – To be used to book first Clinical eVisit with Patient (Note: You can tailor this to suit the needs of your clinic)
  • Clinical eVisit Introductory Email – Template to be used to email patient everything they need to know about joining a Clinical eVisit (Note: You can tailor this to suit the needs of your clinic)
  • Public Wi-fi Disclaimer - Some patients may not have a great deal of data and need to use public wi-fi to join a Clinical eVisit. Please provide patients with this disclaimer so that they understand the importance of taking precautions when using public wi-fi.
  • Support: Medical secretaries and administrative support staff are being asked to act as the first line of support for the patient. When booking the appointment, it is important to stress to the patient that it is their responsibility to utilize all supporting documentation provided and only contact you if those resources have been exhausted. If the secretary or admin support is unable to assist the patient, please inform the patient that their issue is being escalated to KHSC Reacts Support and the patient will be contacted within the following two (2) business days. The issue is then to be emailed to @email. If the issue cannot be resolved by that support line, it will then be escalated to KHSC HelpDesk.

    Please note: If the patient and physician are having issues at the time of the appointment, the appointment is to become a telephone consultation. AT THIS TIME, there is no tech support in place for urgent tech issues.  
  • Text messaging in Reacts: Reacts has a text messaging function; however, it is important to not communicate with patients through this feature. All communications with patients include disclaimers explaining that the text messaging function is not monitored and text messages sent will not be read or responded to. It is important to tell patients that in the event of an emergency, please attend the emergency department at KHSC or call 911.
  • Website information for Patients using this service can be found here.
     

Before you book Clinical eVisits or Telephone Consultations, it is important to follow KHSC processes

Whether you use OTN, Reacts, or telephone for the appointment, it is important to follow the following processes before and after the Clinical eVisit:

1   KHSC Registration

Secretaries guide for cancelling clinics or changing visits to Clinical eVisits or Telephone visits below:

Important note when following any of these processes: When registering the patient, please choose the site (KGH or HDH) where the clinic usually takes place when the patient is seen in person.

  • New virtual visit:
  • Change an existing visit to a Clinical eVisit before clinic occurs:
    • Editing a Visit in PCS
    • Ensure the date/time and Physician are correct
    • Change the subtype and visit location fields accordingly
  • Changing an existing visit to a Clinical eVisit after the clinic has taken place:
    • Editing a Visit in PCS
    • Ensure the date/time and Physician are correct
    • Change the subtype and visit location fields accordingly
    • Activate Visit (Please note: Once the visit is activated, there is no way to reverse the status. For example: If you activate all of the appointments in the morning and then a patient doesn't join an Clinical eVisit, there is no way of showing that it was a 'no show' resulting in the need to discharge the visit which can impact stats. Also, the visit must be activated within 5 days of occurring or PCS will not allow you to activate it.)
  • Cancelling a clinic:
    • Complete and send the Cancellation Form as normal process
    • Print the Utilization Report for all affected clinics 
    • Contact patient and make note on the Utilization Report
    • Reschedule patients to December 25, 2020 (December 25 appointments can be rebooked later to a new date)
    • If you or your office is requiring assistance to support you with calling patients, move patients or to update PCS when changing or cancelling clinics please email: @email so we can find out who/how we can best assist you during this challenging time.
  • *NEW Allied Health Telephone/Clinical eVisit Process

We appreciate all your efforts to contact patients.

2   KHSC Dictation

Physicians should either dictate a note or use the appropriate:

Then send to medical records for all telephone or e-visits. Please make sure the patients’s CR number and a visit number be completed in the label section.

Dictation System Instructions:

Please dictate your report using the phone number of the site where your clinic usually takes place when you see patients in person. (i.e. in-person clinic happens at HDH site, then please dictate using HDH site phone number regardless of where you are located for the Clinical eVisit).

Telephone System Access:

KGH site dictation (if KGH site is the usual spot for clinic)
Ext. 2700 – from KGH site
Ext. 83-2700 – from HDH site
613-548-2356 - from outside the hospital

HDH site dictation (if HDH site is the usual spot for clinic)
Ext. 5100 – from HDH site
Ext. 52-5100 – from KGH site
613-544-0081 – from outside the hospital

3   Billing

Fee structure
SEAMO Billing Sheet for Clinical eVisits and Telephone consults until April 1 2020
SEAMO Billing Sheet for Clinical eVisits and Telephone consults after April 1 2020

 

4   Utilization Reports

You can print a list of clinics, including telephone and Clinical eVisits, by following these instructions on how to print the clinic lists. Click here to view instructions.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the answers to the most common questions about Reacts and Clinical eVisits at KHSC:

 

Support

If at any time you require assistance with Reacts, please email @email

If you require assistance with OTN, contact @email or 613-533-6988

 

KHSC Testimonials from Healthcare Professionals and Administrative Support

Melanie McKay, Secretary:

Melanie works in Mental Health and Addictions/Psychiatry and has experience with videoconferencing thanks to using OTN in the past; however, booking for clinical appointments is new to her.

“Although I have used OTN for videoconferencing, I have never used for booking clinical appointments, but now I have used both OTN and Reacts for clinical appointments.”

She finds signing up and using Reacts to be quite simple; however, finds it to be somewhat difficult for some patients, depending on technical experience and comfort level. Furthermore, the physicians she works with like to use Reacts for interprofessional consulting as it’s more secure, but feel limited by the limit on participants.

All and all, she and her colleagues are happy with the new option to meet virtually with patients through Reacts.

Next steps

As KHSC works collaboratively across the organization, in the community, and across the province to ensure our patients care is not disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic, we want to assure health care providers that a deployment plan is being developed to provide more health care professionals with access to Reacts in the future. If you are a healthcare professional at KHSC and have yet to receive a Reacts account, please speak with your Program Manager.

A Clinical eVisits Project Team was created and questions regarding Reacts deployment can be sent to Sheyi Badmos, Project Manager at @email or Nicole Connell, Change Management Specialist at @email.