Using integrated Telehealth in TherapyAppointment

⚠️ Note: Enabling the Telehealth role requires the role of practice owner or manager.

Telehealth allows the Therapist to remotely see clients for a session (securely via Zoom for healthcare!) by using their computer's microphone and camera for either a 1:1 or group session.

Additionally, please also visit our Telehealth Support page if you are a Provider looking into best practices or things to consider when deciding to incorporate virtual therapy sessions.

In this Article:

Enabling Telehealth

To enable Telehealth for a staff member:

  • Click Practice Settings from the left-hand menu
  • Select Staff from the top tabs
  • Click the provider's name, which brings up the staff Profile view
  • Navigate to the 'Permission and Roles' section. Under Roles locate Therapist > Teletherapy
  • Click  to enable Telehealth for this therapist

Setting up a Telehealth Session

⚠️ Note: Before scheduling a telehealth session, telehealth must be enabled within the therapist's permission roles (see above steps).
  • Click Schedule (left-hand menu)
  • Clicking in the schedule on the particular day/time desired, creating an appointment
  • Enter the client's name at the top
  • Check the 'Telehealth session' option
  • Click

Ensure Availability is Setup for Client Self Scheduling

If you have a practice that is 100% telehealth, or you have days of the week which are telehealth only days, you will wish to limit your clients to ONLY scheduling telehealth on those days so they do not assume this is an in-person appointment. 

This may be accomplished by editing your availability calendar to limit certain days/times to telehealth only, from our article on setting up availability: Calendar Setup

When you click on an availability section, you can define whether or not an availability section is designated as in person, telehealth only, or both:

Then, when clients are scheduling they'd see a built in telehealth option, or can pick from either:

⚠️ Note: Providers without integrated Telehealth enabled would only have 1 option: clients to be able to self schedule as yes/no, and buttons would only say

Update an Existing Appointment to Telehealth Session

If you have an existing standard appointment on your schedule and would like to change it to a Telehealth session, perform the following steps:

  • Click Schedule (left-hand menu)
  • Click on the desired appointment
  • Click the   tab (top)
  • Change Telehealth Session? to Yes
  • Click  near the bottom

Telehealth Session Requirements

The client must have an email address and a client portal account created to access Telehealth. 

To verify if the client has a portal account, click My Clients > select the client name > and use the far right menu with the buttons to determine if they have a username/password set. Under the buttons, if a username exists it will be listed here and show a toggle option.

If they do NOT have credentials, click  which sends the client's email a sign-up link to create an account. The client has 48 hours to click the link and create an account. If the link expires, a password reset link is accessible from the same section of the client profile and can be re-sent easily (says resend portal invitation)

Starting a Telehealth Session (Provider)

15 minutes before the appointment time, both the Provider and the client can then launch the Telehealth session from their dashboard. The image below reflects the provider's view when a Telehealth session is ready.

As a provider there are a few ways to reach this: 

  • From the Dashboard under "Today's Appointments" - click :
  • From the schedule, click on the appointment, and at the top right click the client's name within the button:

If your client is not already logged in and waiting for you, TherapyAppointment will send a system email directing the client to click the link then sign in and launch telehealth.

  • You will see the screen displayed below. 
  • Providers can click even before a client has joined!
  • The system will then load the Zoom link generating the meeting in a new tab. It should then load like any other normal Zoom meeting you join, opening the Zoom application with just you in the meeting.

Some additional things to note, telehealth supports:

  • Unlimited 1 to 1 individual and group telehealth appointments!
  • Session recording (Zoom article)
  • Waiting room (mentioned under the settings section)
  • Breakout rooms for group therapy (Zoom article)
  • Inviting clinical supervisor to session (just send them a message [article here] with the zoom shared link [Zoom article here])

Starting a Telehealth Session (Client)

The client must sign into their client portal account for Telehealth access. 

Client Sign-in options:

⚠️ Note: Join the session before the client? If so, they'll receive an automated email that they can click on to join (they'll still need to sign in):

⚠️ Note: Clicking the link  above will still require a client to sign in for HIPAA and policy/security reasons.

Once signed in, the client portal Dashboard provides details related to the Telehealth session. 

Clicking the button brings the client to the waiting room seen below.

Telehealth Waiting Room

If the client joins the waiting before the provider has started the session on their end, they will see this page with the spinning progress circle:

Once the provider joins the session, the client page will refresh and show this:

The client would then click  --  the Zoom website used to launch the meeting will  popup in a new tab, and the Zoom application will take over from there, allowing you to join the meeting.

Note: if the client continues to see the rotating circle after you've launched Zoom, they can attempt to manually refresh the page, but this should not be necessary.

Having problems? Can't join as either a provider or client?

If either you or your client run into an issue joining the session, you should now be able to automatically "refresh" the Zoom meeting.

Close the Zoom application as well as the Zoom meeting tab and navigate back to the TherapyAppointment tab. You should now see this automatic message on the screen as a provider.

Clicking will prompt us to discard the existing Zoom meeting assigned to your appointment, and recreate it with a fresh, new meeting which should eliminate any issues.

Zoom Meeting Waiting Room - Setting

The default setting is a disabled Zoom waiting room, meaning clients would join without any assistance from you and can just join the Zoom session without any warning.

To enable the Zoom application's waiting room to ALL your integrated provider sessions a provider may: 

  • Go to My Profile
  • Under "Client Portal Settings"
  • Click the blue button
  • Then change "Enable Zoom waiting room?" from No to Yes -- shown below:
  • For Owners or Managers, go to Practice Settings > Staff > Click their name and pick up at the above screenshot section of their profile:

Clients will now be automatically put into the Zoom waiting room when they join each session for that provider.

You will need to admit them into the session when they join, so please be on the look-out at the top center, or under the participants icon at the bottom of the screen for a participant joining the Zoom session or the client may report troubles of not being able to connect (screenshot of managing participants in Zoom shown below):

Also, here's Zoom's official article on Waiting Rooms - Zoom Support

(Mobile-Users) Having issues with Video or Audio? Manage Microphone and Camera Access for Zoom (Provider and Client)

For iOS users, navigate to Settings > Scroll to the very bottom and click on " Zoom" and ensure the settings are enabled for microphone and camera to ensure audio and video access for the Zoom client:

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