Telemedicine Consent Form
Healthcare providers and clinicians use the telemedicine consent form to collect informed consent from patients before receiving medical services digitally (via video on the computer or verbally over the phone). They help doctors confirm that patients agree to the telehealth services, informing them of the particularities of the telehealth visit, the medical treatment, potential risks, and benefits. 123FormBuilder’s telemedicine consent forms are highly-customizable and secure, so you can quickly turn them into an efficient and compliant way of providing care.
What Is a Telehealth Consent Form Used For?
The Telemedicine Consent Form is used as a form of agreement between the patient and the healthcare provider. The doctor shares details about the virtual appointment, treatment, or procedure with the patient.
With the expansion of digital health solutions, more and more medical professionals started to use telemedicine to offer medical care. But just like a physical appointment, the doctor needs to set up some expectations concerning the consultation and obtain informed consent from the patient before discussing or using any medical treatment. The telehealth consent forms are widely used by different types of doctors, such as:
- Physicians
- Pediatricians
- Ophthalmologists
- Dietician
- Dentist
- Psychiatrist
- General practitioner
They use the telehealth consent form to obtain the patient’s approval to assess and treat their medical condition and offer quality telehealth services.
When Is Obtaining Informed Consent Needed?
Before any audio-video patient consultation, scheduled phone call, and even remote patient monitoring, the healthcare provider must collect informed consent. The telehealth consent form plays a crucial role in the doctor-patient experience because:
- It instructs the patient on telehealth services, including the purpose, privacy of medical records, access to technical setup, insurance details (from the insurance agency), the patient’s rights, etc.
- It informs the patient about diagnosis, potential treatments, benefits, risks, or side effects (if they’re part of healthcare research or clinical trials).
- It protects the doctor and the healthcare organization from litigation; that’s why it’s also essential that an attorney checks the telehealth consent form before sharing it with the patient.
Benefits of Form Builder Telemedicine Consent Form
123FormBuilder’s telehealth consent forms simplify the telemedicine consent process and help create a patient-doctor relationship based on trust and transparency. They’re easy to build and customize. You can adapt them to your telemedicine practice needs and improve the patient experience.
Customize Telehealth Templates
Grab one of the consent forms from our template gallery and start customizing it immediately. Are you more of a DIY type of person? You can also build a telehealth consent form right from scratch. You don’t need any coding skills! Use the drag-and-drop editor to add and rearrange fields in your form and make it specific to your medical practice. 123FormBuilder is versatile enough to be used across various medical professions. If you’re a physician or ophthalmologist, you can customize it with sections that are unique to you and your medical appointments.
If you want to ensure that patients go through all the information and fill in all the fields, you can rely on what we call required fields to ensure no missing details by requesting a mandatory answer. You can also connect the form to your favorite digital tools, such as Google Sheets, Dropbox, or Mailchimp. Keep your medical documents on hand or safely send notifications by email.
Publish Template
Obtaining informed consent should be easy now that you’re done building your telehealth consent form. The way you share it with your patients is entirely up to you. If you prefer a more personal approach, send it by email. If you prefer to include it when they book an appointment, make it part of the scheduling process and have them sign and submit it with their request or as a second step. Once the patient has sent you their data, you can even download the submission as a PDF or CSV for easy access.
Safely Collect & Manage Data
Collecting patient data and their signature is a sensitive process. You want to make sure their data is safe and that your organization is also protected from external threats. With 123FormBuilder, you can safely collect ePHI due to our strong security measures covering 256-bit SSL data encryption, antispam protection, form password, SSO, HTTPS logins, and HIPAA compliance (which you can add as part of an Enterprise plan). So whether it’s for medical appointments or healthcare research, collecting patient data with 123FormBuilder gives you access to secure forms that protect the privacy and integrity of your healthcare organization and that of your patients.
Optimize Processes
Telehealth consent forms can be pretty helpful if you’re looking to streamline how your healthcare organization or medical practice collects informed consent. Besides bearing a great responsibility concerning transparency, the quality of medical care, and patient data privacy, they could become a bottleneck in the patient intake process if not approached correctly. 123FormBuilder aims to simplify obtaining permission from patients by making it easy for healthcare providers to build and share the consent forms and by creating a positive experience for patients, where they can quickly fill out the form and sign it.
Informed Consent FAQs
Does telemedicine require informed consent?
Absolutely. There are specific laws concerning informed consent, depending on the country, region, or the state you’re in. Check them out on official government websites or consult with your healthcare organization attorney to ensure your telehealth consent form complies with local regulations.
Is verbal consent sufficient for telehealth?
In some cases, patients can give verbal consent for a telehealth visit, but the doctor still has to document it in the official medical records. However, obtaining informed consent in writing could be more valid and helpful in certain situations that appear in the future. This way, you can ensure the patient has had the time to understand all the aspects of telehealth services.
How can I document telehealth visits?
An efficient way to document the telehealth visits is to create a checklist for yourself and ensure you go through every step necessary to create accurate and complete medical records. Use 123FormBuilder to document telehealth services. Pick a template or start building your form from scratch. Include all the fields and questions you need to ask your patient, and during the appointment, fill out the form with the patient’s data. Submit the form, and this way, you’ll have a straight record, and you ensure that you didn’t forget or miss to put down critical information.
How do you get consent virtually?
The most common and secure way to obtain consent virtually is by requesting an electronic signature. 123FormBuilder makes this option available to anyone creating forms with our tool by simply dragging and dropping the signature field into the forms and personalizing it with a couple of instructions if you find it necessary.
