Preparing for your Telemedicine Appointment
Once your referral has been triaged by one of our IBD specialists, you will be contacted by the IBD Telemedicine nurse from Mount Sinai Hospital with the date, time and location of your telemedicine appointment. To get to know you better, we ask you to complete and return the new patient questionnaire prior to your appointment.
What Happens at a Telemedicine Visit?
On the day of your appointment, you will go to a healthcare centre or hospital near your home that offers OTN telemedicine services. When you arrive for your appointment, you will meet with a local telemedicine coordinator, who is often a nurse. They will explain to you what will happen during the visit. The telemedicine coordinator will ask you to sign a consent form that will permit us to conduct your telemedicine visit. You are welcome to bring a family member or friend to the telemedicine appointment.
During the visit, you will use 2-way video conferencing to see, hear and talk to your IBD specialist about your current condition and plan of care. Basically, a telemedicine visit is similar to a regular visit with the only difference being that the physician sees and talks to you through a television or computer screen. You will be in a private room for the duration of your appointment. The telemedicine nurse coordinator will stay with you for the duration of the visit and may be asked by the IBD consultant to perform certain components of the physical examination.
The consulting IBD specialist will have your relevant health information that has been sent by your community physician, as well as has your completed patient questionnaire. As specialist appointments can move along quite quickly, please make sure that you bring a list of any questions that you may have for the physician.
Following your appointment, the IBD Telemedicine Nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital will contact you to arrange any medication prescriptions, laboratory testing or follow-up appointments that have been recommended by the IBD specialist.