Keeping people safe is always important, but particularly in the current health crisis when professional distancing is critical.
To maintain a healthy population, it’s crucial that clinicians can deliver safe, effective, medical care. This can often be achieved with telephone appointments during self-isolation and social distancing, it is the most accessible medium but poses a significant challenge where a visual assessment is required.
Using next-generation video-sharing technology, our Virtual Consultations solution enables enhanced virtual appointments, so clinicians can deliver consultations whilst keeping everyone safe:
• Enables instant remote visual assessment of the patient
• No additional understanding or equipment needed within theclinician’s environment
• No set up for the patient as it uses their built-in smartphone functionality
• Retains a secure and safe video record of the consultation which can be attached to the patient record
• Relieves demand by enabling self-isolating clinicians to provide care
• Enables easy and open access to services whilst protecting the most vulnerable
• Deployed within a secure container within Microsoft Azure, ensuring compliance with NHS Digital Information Governance Standards
The clinician discusses care on the telephone with a patient and, if a visual assessment is required, sends a link via text or email to the patient’s smartphone. The link enables the phone camera to live-stream from the patient’s device without installing an app or software, helping clinicians and health professionals across care settings deliver safe and effective care for their patients and clients.
The clinician or health professional can then initiate a visual assessment mid-call, making it possible to track the development or progress of a condition. The live stream can also be shared with specialist colleagues.
The media is automatically captured, digitally fingerprinted and retained securely for 30 days, during which time it can be downloaded to the patient record.
Compatible with existing systems, Virtual Consultations can be set up remotely in just a few days, with staff training and onboarding taking less than an hour. There’s nothing for the patient to install.
Virtual Consultations enables healthcare organisations to enhance the delivery of safe and effective care, even during challenging periods, making it possible to offer self-isolating clinicians a smooth transition to home working. It enables easy and open access to services whilst protecting the most vulnerable, supporting patient consultations usually delivered by outpatient clinics, doctors’ surgeries, community settings and home visits.
Enhanced remote assessments make it possible to support patients without compromising their or their clinician and healthcare professional’s wellbeing, particularly important when limiting the exposure of vulnerable people. Patients avoid the inconvenience and expense of travelling to a healthcare facility, eliminating time spent waiting in the clinic.
Virtual Consultations can be fully integrated with our teletriage solution for safe, consistent remote assessments. Ideal for supporting patients with self-isolation and social distancing, it combines intuitive patient-relationship management with customisable clinical decision support, enhanced by the media-streaming capabilities of Virtual Consultation for informed assessments by doctors, nurses and trained call handlers.
