The following outlines our processes prior to and after an appointment:
– Referral received from GP, Call to Mind admin enters patient details in Halaxy and uploads the referral letter
– Referral screened by Call to Mind MH nurse or Director to try and identify patients not suitable for telehealth appointments and to appropriately allocate referral.
– Referrals are screened based on suitability for telehealth and ability to wait until appointment can occur. Referrals may be rejected based on concerns about acuity of presentation/possible need for inpatient admission or assertive outreach, symptoms that may interfere with ability to engage in appointment (i.e. psychotic symptoms, cognitive impairments) or when there are significant barriers to facilitating the call (i.e. no internet and unable to attend GP). Referrals are not triaged based on acuity, though we sometimes consider requests for shorter wait times.
– Both 291 assessments and ongoing appointments will be allocated to psychiatrists, please discuss with Erin if you would prefer to only see certain types of appointment.
– Once screened, Call to Mind admin then contacts the patient to arrange an appointment with a suitable clinician, based on the clinician’s specialty and availability.
– The patient receives an email with details of their appointment time, billing arrangements, instructions on how to access the waiting room and a “How To” video for attending the appointment.
– The patient also receives a link to the Patient Agreement / Terms and Conditions. They must also agree to the T&Cs through Coviu prior to entering the waiting room. While there is no record kept of this, they cannot enter the room without agreeing, so any patient who is in the waiting room is taken to have consented.
– Prior to the appointment, the patient receives a confirmation SMS and email 5 days prior to the appointment and then again on the day of the appointment. If the patient contacts the practice to cancel the appointment, we will remove it from the calendar and alert the GP. NB we will not let each clinician know if an appointment is cancelled unless if it is within 24 hours of the appointment time, clinicians are responsible for monitoring their own schedule to stay informed.
Billing:
– Patients are sent an invoice at the time of booking to pay prior to the appointment taking place.
Follow up appointments:
– We will book any follow up appointments for clients and these can be allocated to the admin team as Tasks in the patient file.