Megan: We offer virtual visits which is primarily what we are using to see our patients. Because of COVID, many patients have not felt comfortable coming into the actual facility. So, we implemented a platform specifically for Behavioral Health. This platform has excellent video quality. It also allows us to text the meeting link to our patients which they can just click on, ask for access to our microphone and camera, and then get immediate access to our “waiting room”.

Megan: No. It requires no downloading. There is nothing they have to purchase. It’s easy and accessible to our patients. There’s little to no time needed to explain how to use it. A patient receives a simple text message with my name saying I want to meet for a virtual visit.

Megan: Yes. I usually ask patients if they prefer to receive an email because they have a laptop, or a text message if they just want to do it from their phone.

Megan: You can expect the same exact thing that happens in an in-person visit. There’s not much of a difference between the two except you see my face on cell phone and not in person. Typically, with a new patient, the meeting has the same exact format as an in-person visit. We call it the initial consult, the initial assessment. We begin by getting social and family history; we do drug and alcohol and depression and anxiety assessments. It’s the same exact process except you don’t have to go through the driving and the checking in at registration.

Megan: No. All we need is the ability to connect into the website, a microphone and a camera. For the two days I practice, my first patient is an in-patient visit. As soon as we finish, I swing over to my computer and sign on so there’s no real big change that has to happen, it’s pretty smooth.

Megan: The advantages are that you get to do it from the couch of your own home. We had zero problem implementing this. Our patients were very excited about this.

We did have some patients who hesitated because there is always that concern on both parts of building a rapport. It can take a little bit more time in some cases to build that rapport with a new patient because it’s virtual. When someone comes in person, you visibly see the whole therapist. You see their office, you see their environment, you can read visible cues with body language.

Having said this, the advantages are huge with the community we work with. Transportation is sometimes a huge barrier to coming in as well as childcare. For example, a patient did not want to bring children along to the therapy appointment because they didn’t know what to do with them during that time, they couldn’t really concentrate. Being at home, the patient didn’t have to worry about any of that. She put the kids in another room, gave them toys to keep them occupied, and she was able to have a 45-minute session with me from the comfort of her couch. She didn’t have to worry about a car being accessible, or if she could get on the bus, or if she had to call a Medicaid taxi.