Avoiding Patient Confusion From Multiple Telehealth Invites

If a patient receives multiple telehealth invites in a short period, they may not know which one to use. Invites for the same visit carry the same link, so the patient can open any of them.

Why This Happens

• Starting the call again for the same patient within 3 hours of the first start sends the same link again, by email and SMS, whichever they have on file.
• For a telehealth appointment, the Join video visit button in the appointment emails opens the same visit as the link sent when you join the call or start it from the chart.
• A new visit, with a new link, starts once more than 3 hours have passed since the first start, when you invite a different caregiver, or when another clinician calls the patient.

Best Practices

To prevent confusion:

• Resend the link by starting the call again from the patient’s chart.
• Ask patients to use the most recent invite. If you start the call again 3 to 4 hours after the first start, the patient gets a new link while the older visit is still open, and the older link keeps opening the older visit.

Tip

A link only opens its own visit.

• Before you join, the patient sees Your visit hasn’t started yet.

• A visit started from the chart closes 4 hours after the first start. An appointment’s visit closes 2 hours after the appointment ends. After that, the link 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 in the call window.