This article covers:
Video consultations from the toolbar
You can start a video call with your patients via our award-winning remote consultation platform, Q health, in the toolbar. It also gives you access to our 'click to call' feature that allows you to call your patients directly from your computer or from your device of choice through the internet.
Benefits of using eConsult's video functionality
Instant or scheduled HD video consultations
Switch between video and telephone calls easily
Invite patients via email or SMS and allow them to join on any device (tablet, smartphone, PC)
Multiple invitees possible for multi-party calls – family member, carer, sign language, interpreter, multi-disciplinary team etc
If you don’t have a webcam on your PC, you can use the one on your smartphone by sending an invitation to your own phone
Ability to take photographs during the video consultation
Blur background on your video call
Centrally funded and approved by NHS England and NHS Digital
Metric dashboards on usage at practice and CCG/PCN/STP level
Creating a call from the toolbar
In the 'Call' icon on the eConsult toolbar, click the 'Meetings' tab. You can choose whether to create a meeting 'for now' or for a specific 'day & time'. You can either click to see today or use the calendar icon to view a specified timeframe.
The above screenshot shows you today - you have an instant meeting that has been completed (it shows you the time you joined and then also an end time in the final column) and an instant meeting that has been scheduled but that you have not yet joined. You have options as to what to do with this instant meeting.
Create a meeting for now
Click on the 'Create for now' button to generate a meeting link for participants. You can either copy this to your clipboard to send to the meeting participants, or you can invite them directly via the email and SMS options provided.
By clicking 'Join' you'll enter the consultation room and you'll wait for anyone else invited to join you.
Create a meeting for a specific time and date
By clicking the 'Create for time & day' option you'll see the below screen where you can set your meeting description and select a time and day.
Your meeting will then show on your meeting screen as shown on the first screenshot in this article. You have 4 options:
Join the call
Invite others to the call (this will bring up the ability to copy the joining information to your clipboard, or to send it directly via email or SMS)
Edit the meeting description e.g. to update how the meeting shows up in your meeting screen
Delete the meeting entirely
In-call features
There are several in-call features that you can access from the option bar that comes up during your call (shown here before anyone else has joined). Don't forget that you can resize the toolbar window!
Hang up - End the call
Camera - temporarily disable your camera
Mute - temporarily mute yourself
Rotate - switch your camera (useful for calling on mobile phones)
Participants - see who else is on your call
Switch to video - invite your patients to join via video instead
Files - upload and send the participants any files
Blur background - show only yourself, not what's behind you
Ending a call from the toolbar
When you're finished with your call, you can click the 'hang up' button. You will be given the choice to either 'End' the meeting, which ends the meeting for all participants, or 'Leave' the meeting, which will allow other participants to continue. Video calls will time out after 1 hour of inactivity.
Once you have left the video meeting, you'll be shown a questionnaire about your experience of the video consultation and technology.
Switching between video and telephone consultations
You might have noticed that when you are speaking to the patient, you also have the option to upgrade or downgrade between video and telephone calls.
If you're on a video consultation with your patient and want to convert to an audio-only telephone call, you'll need to click the ringing phone icon.
The patient journey
Patients, carers, colleagues or anyone else invited to join a video call via SMS will receive a text message that looks like the below:
When they click the link, they'll be asked to type in their name and click 'Join'. They'll need to allow access to their location, the microphone and camera before their image appears on the browser. Once the clinician has joined the call they will wait in a waiting room until the clinician joins.
Anyone on the call can mute themselves or leave the call as they wish. If they accidentally leave, they can rejoin the call by following the above steps. However, if a call has been ended by the initiating clinician, they will receive a message informing them that the call has ended.
At the end of the call, the patient will be invited to complete a simple questionnaire on the consultation and the platform.
If you have any questions or you feel that this article could be improved, please feel free to give us some feedback by emailing us, pressing the emojis below or using the chat button on the bottom right-hand side of this page to speak to one of the eConsult team.