Victoria Divisions of Family Practice

Getting you started quickly with virtual care

 

Webinars from the Doctors Technology Office (DTO):

  1. Training Support for Doxy.me | The Doctors Technology Office has created a series of 'how-to' videos to assist you with virtual care implementation, including how to get started, Zoom for healthcare, using Doxy.me, MOA virtual visit workflows, and more. You can find their online Learning Series here
     
  2. Introducing Patients to Virtual Care: DTO has created a short video in collaboration with Patient Voices Network that physicians may wish to link to for their patients.

Zoom for Healthcare

Community FPs are able to receive a licence to Zoom for Healthcare from the Public Health Services Agency (PHSA). The Doctors Technology Office has published step-by-step instructions that you can follow to get your license: Click here .

PHSA has several resources on Zoom for Healthcare, including a new Help Desk for providers and the public, which you can share with your patients:

Citizen Help Desk Phone Number (for patients): 1-844-442-4433

Hours: Monday-Friday, 7am-5pm (closed on holidays)

You can also find additional Zoom for Healthcare resources here.

You may have heard concerns about privacy and security with Zoom. These affect the free version of the software and not the version for Healthcare. You can read PHSA's latest statement about Zoom for Healthcare and privacy here.


DTO Clinic IT Support Community

The Clinic IT Support Community through the DTO provides online learning sessions for IT staff and supporting physicians as well as online resources and reference materials including information on provincial initiatives that will improve IT support delivery to clinics. To learn more and join the community click here

View these resources:

  1. Quick Start Guide for Telemedicine (DTO)

Covering:

  • Hardware requirements (microphone, camera)
  • Informing patients, getting consent, and documenting consent
  • Workflows for scheduling, charting, and billing
  • How to bill, and more.
  1. Virtual Care Tool Kit (DTO)
  2. FAQ for Patients (DTO)
  3. Poster for clinics providing virtual care visits during COVID-19
  4. Guide to Mailchimp and Fongo (guide)

Doctors Technology Office has more resources on telemedicine here, including Privacy and security


Important information

  1. Temporary telehealth billing changes for Covid-19

Billing codes have been adjusted so that you may bill for a telephone call at the same rate as you would for a videoconference consult. 

  1. CMPA Consent Form for Patients

Having a standard and consistently applied way of receiving informed verbal consent from patients is essential, though written consent is more rigorous. You can use the CMPA form (headline links to it) for written consent.

Pages 2-3 of the DTO Virtual Care Toolkit offer a script for verbal consent, as well as suggested chart notes. You may create a template within your EMR that launches every time a virtual visit is initiated. If you do not know how to create EMR templates, contact your EMR provider. Your Practice Support Program coordinator may also be able to help.

  1. Using Facetime

You can use Facetime for virtual visits but you must have iCloud turned off on your mobile device, the DTO advises. To turn off iCloud:

  • Click on "Settings" app.
  • Click on your device name (at the top)
  • Click on iCloud (cloud icon)
  • Scroll down to "iCloud Backup" - click and make sure it is set to "off"

Vancouver Coastal Health region is using Facetime. View their Standard Operating Procedure here (keep in mind some links may not work outside VCH)

  1. Telemedicine for Opioid and Cannabis Prescriptions:

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC have revised their practice standard to improve access to telemedicine. Specifically, they are now allowing physicians to prescribe opioids or cannabis via telemedicine if they have a longitudinal relationship with the patient or are in direct communication with a physician or nurse practitioner than has such a relationship. Read the details here.

  1. CMPA FAQs on Virtual Care (questions 7 and 8)

CPMA confirms that you are supported to provide virtual care, including to patients who are temporarily outside of Canada (e.g. travellers who are unable to return home). 


EMR Basic Function Guides

The JCC Resource Catalogue contains basic overviews for common EMRs, which may be helpful for orienting new staff. They can be accessed here.


More information and one-on-one support:

Please contact Doctors Technology Office directly at:
Main Line: 604-638-5841 | 1 800 665 2262​
Email: dtoinfo@doctorsofbc.ca (link sends e-mail)
Webpage: https://www.doctorsofbc.ca/dto

Questions for the Victoria Division? Contact Kristin Atwood: katwood@victoriadivision.ca 


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