Banty Co-Founder and Medical Director, Dr. Richard Tytus, provided the subject matter and direction for this article. The author would like to thank Adam Grant for his editorial assistance in writing the article. Dr. Richard Tytus takes responsibility for the content of the article.
Alright, so you have decided that it is time to start practicing telemedicine. You’ve come around to the idea of seeing patients in a virtual environment, and understand just how beneficial such an approach will be for your clinic and those it serves.
Before you head off to the races, it is important to take your time with the implementation of your telehealth system and approach. Because honestly, if you introduce such technology into your clinic and don’t know how to use it properly, patients may resist signing up for virtual visits.
Needless to say, all doctors, nurses, and administrative members of your clinic need to be fully versed in how their online medicine service functions. Additionally, they need to know everything from how patients will be introduced to it, straight through to them logging on to see a doctor.
This can be a complicated and challenging process for some. As a result, you should ease your clinical team into telemedicine. This is how you do that:
Make the Implementation a Gradual Process
When someone is learning how to be a plumber, they are not thrown into a flooded bathroom on day one and told, “Okay, fix this up.” There has to be a calculated and steady educational process executed first.
Same goes for your clinical team. It needs to gradually learn about how a patient can book an online doctor’s appointment; what to do if a patient doesn’t understand video call technology; and how to keep patient information secure and private, etc.
Even if you are anxious to introduce virtual medicine to your clinic’s repertoire, you have to get your team up to speed first.
Have Educational Meetings and/or Training Sessions
Some of your staff will have the wherewithal to easily grasp the ins and outs of the video call provider your clinic has chosen to work with. Others, however, may not.
To avoid certain staff members feeling left behind, initiate educational meetings and/or training sessions. These can be as digestible as 30-minute gatherings in which a specific element of your video chat app is explored. For more intensive learning, maybe a half-day get-together with the team will make better sense.
Identify the Leaders on Your Team
As the educational process unfolds, you will quickly see which members of your team are leading the way in terms of understanding the video conference practices the clinic is hoping to succeed at.
Encourage these leaders to be a resource to staff who have trouble figuring out the ways in which your clinic wants to host online doctor’s appointments. Additionally, with multiple leaders in place, more conversation about your clinic’s virtual medicine goals and objectives can be had.
Ultimately, these leaders will be of great assistance and be able to rev up the learning process for all involved.
Test Drive Your Video Call Service Regularly
During the educational process, and after you feel like the clinical team is comfortable with your video call provider and strategies, test drive the service frequently.
Even if a staff member has read and absorbed all of the service’s instructions and the clinic-developed ‘best practices’ manual, they will not have a full appreciation for the video chat app until they get hands-on.
Once this happens, you will truly see just how close your clinic is to being ready to roll out this service to patients.
Don’t Start Booking Virtual Visits Until You’re 100% Ready to Do So
If your clinical team has successfully educated itself on how your online medicine service and processes work, feel free to start asking patients if they’d like to meet virtually with a doctor.
However, if you even have the smallest sense that your team is not quite ready for primetime, dial the launch date back a little bit. Rushing to the starting line could result in unwelcome stress and friction for both your coworkers and loyal patients.
If your medical clinic is ready to introduce its patient to online appointments, tap here to discover why Banty Virtual Clinic is the perfect solution.
