Tele-Behavioral Consent

If you have any questions please email them to telehealth@shchc.org

Introduction:

Telebehavioral health allows patients access to medical care, including psychiatric care, using 
audio-video interface such as videoconferencing. For the purposes of this consent form, all treatment is referring to psychiatric care. 

Electronic systems used will incorporate network and software security protocols to protect the confidentiality of patient identification and imaging data and will include measures to safeguard the data and to ensure its integrity against intentional or unintentional corruption. 

A licensed health care professional who can adequately and accurately assist with access to medical records, orders, and emergency patient care will be in the examination room with the patient at all times that the patient is receiving telemedicine services. 

Expected Benefits:

• Continuity of care with the same healthcare provider.
• Improved access to psychiatric care.
• Obtaining expertise of a distant specialist.

Possible Risks

Risks include, but may not be limited to:

• In rare cases, information transmitted may not be sufficient (e.g., poor resolution of images) to allow for appropriate medical decision making by the consultant. This is even more unlikely related to the field of psychiatry.
• Delays in evaluation and treatment could occur due to equipment failure.
• In very rare instances, security protocols could fail, causing a breach of privacy of personal medical information. To prevent this from occurring, the software that is being used is compliant with HIPAA standards and employs a firewall, router, and VPN-based access controls to secure the private-service networks and backend servers.