A telehealth EMR is an electronic medical record, or electronic health record, with native telehealth features. This saves your practice the stress and work involved with finding and integrating a third party telemedicine software. Instead, you can conduct telehealth appointments while accessing clinical notes directly within your EHR.

DrChrono has a native telehealth feature that allows you to connect with patients without ever leaving your EHR. Our telemedicine software is cloud-based, and it requires minimal onboarding for patients. You can simply send them a link to the video visit through our patient portal, OnPatient, and they can log into the call from there. Because our telehealth software is integrated with our EHR, you can also access patient notes without interrupting the appointment.

Yes, patients and providers can conduct video visits from mobile devices like their iPhone or iPad. This provides much greater flexibility for both parties. Providers can also access their patients’ records during the mobile telehealth visit.

With DrChrono’s telehealth software, your patients do not need to download any extra apps or software to join their video visits. Our cloud-based software makes onboarding patients as simple as sending a link for the video visit from your EHR. Broader telehealth adoption has expanded access to patients, particularly in specialties like psychiatry and mental health. Solutions that do not require additional downloads make telehealth even more accessible for patients who are not as naturally inclined to adopting new technology.

The best telehealth software is more than just a video chat system, so make sure that your platform has the features your practice needs. One very important aspect of a great telemedicine system is that it is cloud-based and easy to set up. A frustrating onboarding process can get in the way of a positive video visit experience, so look for a platform that will let your patients access the appointment from a link you send.

Your telehealth software must be HIPAA compliant and secure. It should also have a patient portal that allows patients to schedule appointments online, pay for the visit and securely message with you if questions arise. As with the patient portal, it’s important that the telehealth software is integrated with your EHR software, so that you do not have to switch between various apps to find clinical information. Providers should be able to chart during the appointment.

Finally, make sure that your telemedicine vendor gives you access to live chat and email ticket support in the event that you run into technical issues.

Once you adopt telehealth into your medical practice, you need to implement a plan to track the ROI of that tool. These are some useful metrics to gain an understanding of before beginning to use your telehealth software:

• Impact on patient acuity level
• Cost savings
• New patient volume
• Patient retention
• Revenue from reimbursements
• Technology implementation costs
• Program maintenance
• Staffing

Other metrics to consider tracking include appointment cancellation rates, treatment adherence, patient engagement and satisfaction, but make sure to consider what is the most important to measure at your particular practice.