Initiating a Telehealth Call with a Patient

SigmaMD allows you to securely connect with patients via telehealth. Televisits can be initiated directly from the patient’s chart for follow-ups or urgent concerns, providing a simple and reliable way to deliver care remotely. The steps below explain how to start a televisit and ensure a smooth experience for both you and the patient.

1. Start the Call

• From the patient chart, click the Start video call button at the bottom left to start a video call.

• Ensure your browser is set up correctly to handle video calls. This guide helps you check and update your browser permissions to facilitate a smooth video call experience.
• After confirming the settings, click Confirm.

• If the patient has a telehealth appointment with you that starts within 30 minutes, is under way, or ended less than 2 hours ago, Start video call opens that appointment’s visit.
• The call opens in a new browser window. If your browser blocks it, you’ll see Call window blocked: allow pop-ups for SigmaMD, then start the call again.
• In the call window, check your camera and microphone, then click Join call.

2. Patient Notification

• Your patient receives a link by email and SMS, whichever they have on file. It opens the visit in their browser on desktop or mobile — no SigmaMD Patient App download or account setup is required. If the patient has caregivers with an email or mobile number, you choose one in the dialog, and the link goes to that caregiver instead.
• For a scheduled telehealth appointment, the patient’s appointment emails already include a Join video visit button, and the link is sent again when the first clinician joins the call.
• If the patient has no email or mobile number on file, you’ll see Link not sent. Copy the visit link from the call window and share it another way. When they open it, they enter their name and ask to join, and you click Admit.
• A visit started from the chart stays open for 4 hours. Starting another call with the same patient within 3 hours of the first start reopens that visit and sends the same link again. Calling a different caregiver starts a separate visit with its own link, and an older link always opens its own visit.
• Until you join, the patient’s page shows Your visit hasn’t started yet. Once the visit closes, it shows Visit Has Ended, and starting the call again sends a new link. If the patient opens the link on a second device, they ask to join, and you click Admit.
• If you are alone in the call for 3 minutes, a 3-minute countdown appears (You will leave the call in). When it ends, you leave the call automatically, but the visit stays open: click Rejoin to go back in.

3. Conducting the Call

• Besides you, up to 3 people can be in the call, for example the patient and a caregiver, or someone you admit from the visit link. For a scheduled telehealth appointment, you or a colleague can also join with Join call in the calendar, from 30 minutes before the start.

• To leave, click the red Leave call button. The call goes on for anyone still in it, and you can Rejoin while the visit is open.
• To end the call for everyone, click the arrow next to the red button, select End call for everyone, then Confirm. This option is available to the clinician who started the call. For an appointment, it's available to the clinician who scheduled it, or, if the patient booked it, to the clinician it's booked with. You can reopen the call with Join call until the visit closes, and the patient can rejoin from the same page.

Best Practice

To avoid patient confusion, use the Note to patient field in the Appointment Type settings to clearly explain how the video visit will begin. For example:

Your clinician will message you when they’re ready to start the visit. Please reply to confirm you’re ready. Once confirmed, the clinician will start the video call and you’ll receive the join link by email and SMS.