Getting started with video appointments

Set up your Confrere

Start by asking your colleagues whether they have already set up a Confrere for your office. You can also

, and we can check this for you.

If your office already has a Confrere, ask an admin to invite you in as a team member. You will then receive an invitation via email. Note that this email can sometimes end up in your spam-folder, so check there too if you can’t find it in your inbox.

If neither you or your office have a Confrere account, go to the sign up page to create one. You’ll be done within 5 minutes.

Let your colleagues access Confrere

On your dashboard, go to “Team” at the top menu and invite all of the physicians in your office who wish to offer video appointments through your clinic’s Confrere.

Use your computer, smartphone or tablet

Confrere works well on both your computer, smartphone and tablet. You do not need to purchase any special or expensive equipment.

The advantages of using your smartphone or tablet are that they already have built-in cameras and microphones. But if you are having many video calls a day, a computer is a better choice.

We recommend that you always use a headset to avoid the sound echoing, and if you need an external camera for your stationary computer, you’ll be fine with a reasonably priced one.

Familiarize your medical secretary with your video tool

As the medical secretary is often the first person that the patient meets at the office, they ought to become familiar with what kinds of situations video appointments are useful for, and how video appointments are organized within your office.

They should also know exactly how your video calling tool works so that they can give patients helpful information.

Confrere is priced so that your office only pays for team members who make video calls. Thus, you can invite any medical secretary or other personnel to be a team member on your Confrere free of charge, as long as they don’t make video calls. They'll still have access to the dashboard, and can send patients text message invitations via Confrere regarding upcoming video appointments.

Inform your medical secretary of:

• which physicians offer video appointments
• which days and times are set aside for video appointments, and if or when it holds video-hours
• how much time is allotted to each appointment (video appointments are often shorter than in-person appointments, typically under 10 minutes)

Consider booked appointments or video-hours

You’re almost ready to tell your patients that you’ve begun to offer video appointments. Before you do though, consider whether you would like to offer video appointments as drop-ins, pre-scheduled, or during allotted video-hours.

Each physician can post their availability by going to "Settings", and then clicking on "Business hours'' in the "Appearance" menu. Many physicians have had a very positive experience with so-called video-hours. If you choose to use video-hours, make sure you allot time for it in your booking or EHR system.

Inform about video appointments on your website

We suggest adding a link to your Confrere on your website. If you need any help creating this, contact your website provider. If your office has a price list on its website, video appointments should be added to the list.

Make it possible for patients to book video appointments

If video appointments are only offered by booking in advance (e.g., no drop-ins), they should be included as an option in the booking form.

In most booking systems, video can be set up as its own type of appointment. If this isn’t an option in your booking system, you can instead add a sentence at the top of your booking form asking patients to write "VIDEO" into the comments field. Don’t hesitate to

or your booking system if you need assistance.

You can also read more about how you can use Confrere along with your EHR system.