Telehealth

If you have not seen your doctor for a face-to-face consult in months, your doctor may request an in-person consult: Telehealth is a great resource, but it is not best practice to use telehealth all of the time.

Your doctor will confirm your identity and consent at the beginning of the phone or video consult.

Phone Consults: Your doctor will phone you at the agreed time, or thereabouts. If you do not answer, the call may need to be rescheduled. Please ensure your correct contact phone number is provided to the clinic.

Video Consults: You will receive confirmation via SMS and email from our online booking and telehealth vendor, HotDoc.

These confirmations will include the telehealth video link, and instructions.

 If you don’t receive confirmation from HotDoc, please phone the clinic to find out what has happened.

Technical Information for video consults: Ensure you have the latest update for your web browser, whether you are using an Android or iOS device, or a laptop or PC. You will need to “Allow” access to your camera and microphone to successfully enter the telehealth call on your device.

A helpful guide can be accessed here: https://help.hotdoc.com.au/hc/en-gb/articles/360041360751-How-to-book-and-attend-a-Telehealth-Video-Consultation

Concession Card Holders: Phone and video appointments will be bulkbilled between 8am – 5pm weekdays. Concession fees apply outside of those times.

Non-Concession Patients: Phone and video appointments will be billed at normal consult rates.

Privacy note: Your personal information is protected by law, including the Privacy Act 1988, and is collected by the Australian Government Department of Human Services for the assessment and administration of payments and services. This information is required to process your application or claim. Your information may be used by the department, or given to other parties where you have agreed to that, or where it is required or authorised by law (including for the purpose of research or conducting investigations). You can get more information about the way in which the department will manage your personal information, including our privacy policy.

Email and Telehealth Communication – what you should know:

This information is about the risks of telehealth, conditions for use of such communication and how such communication will be used.

Please read and fully understand the consent information below, and ensure you understand the risks associated with the communication of email and web-based telehealth between the health care professional and patient (you).

 Communication by email/telehealth has a number of risks which include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. The health care professional cannot guarantee that any particular email or audiovisual message/call will be read or responded to.
2. Email can be circulated, forwarded and stored in paper and electronic files. Telehealth options may not be secure/encrypted therefore could be subject to government and non-government bodies to “hack”
3. Backup copies of email may exist even after the sender or the recipient has deleted his/her copy
4. Email senders can easily misaddress an email or email can be received by unintended recipients.
5. Email can be intercepted, altered, forwarded or used without authorisation or detection
6. Employers and online services have a right to archive and inspect emails transmitted through their systems.

Conditions for the use of email/web based telehealth:

1. Banyo Clinic will use reasonable means to protect the security and confidentiality of email information sent and received.
2. Email/Telehealth are not appropriate for urgent or emergency situations, nor is it a substitute for care that may be most appropriately provided during a face-to-face visit.
3. It is the responsibility of the patient to inform Banyo Clinic of email address and phone number changes.
4. When emailing Banyo Clinic, patients should:
   1. Put personal informration such as a full name in the body of the email (if required), not in the subject line.
   2. Include the general topic of the message in the email’s subject line. E.g. ‘advice’ or ‘appointment’.
   3. Contact Banyo Clinic via alternative communication methods (phone, letter etc) if a reply is not received within a reasonable period of time
5. Patient requests for information (such as investigation results, consultation letters, health summaries) to be communicated by Email will be at the patients own risk.
6. Patients are responsible for informing Banyo Clinic of any types of information that I do not want to be sent via email.
7. Patients are responsible for protecting their passwords or other means of access to email and Banyo Clinic are not liable for breaches of confidentiality caused by the patient or any third party.
8. Email communication between patients and Banyo Clinic are part of the medical record, other individuals authorised to access the medical record will have access to those emails.
9. Email messages from patients may also be delegated to another health care professional or staff member for response. Administration staff may also receive and read or respond to patient emails.