Ok I was ready to switch over to televisits today but it didn’t go as planed. Here are the problems I faced. Hopefully this makes sense.
Provider side: when installing the Healow agent on each provider laptop and desktop, there is a major glitch. The Healow agent install went well. Then you login to the agent, and it asks you to install a browser plugin and hit refresh. I installed but loops and keeps asking for the same download and install. It won’t let me “refresh” as it should. I had placed a ecw ticket the kind rep showed me how to “reset the cache” for the agent. Ctrl-alt-M when under healow settings screen. I did that and the result in out of 4 laptops it only worked on 1. 3 others laptops are stuck in this download browser plugin and refresh loop. I’ll have to place another ticket for this.
Patients side-
But for patients, the problem is on desktop version via the portal page. Once on patient portal, it has a button that says View Televisit FAQ and you can press a nice button that tests if the patient’s computer is compatible. It said no to me even though I have the latest chrome default browser and windows 10 operating system. The error says “healow TeleVisits use cutting edgebrowser technology to deliver a great experience. Unfortunately,your device is currently unsupported. Please use a laptop or desktop to access your TeleVisits”
So I bypassed that message and went straight to the “Join televisit”. It then did it’s own nice clean compatibility check and I got “its compatible for browser and audio.” That makes no sense if the other compatibility button said I failed. And evne though this says I’m compatible, at the bottom it said “My internet connection is only good enough for audio” which can’t be true. I can zoom and skype multiple visits on my business high speed internet and internal high speed network.
So then I went to the Healow app as a patient. Nice easy login and I can easily see I have 1 appointment pending. I click it’s twice then pressed “Start TeleVisit”. I entered the vitals (note text error - Heart rate and respiratory rate are labeled correctly) and was brought straight to virtual waiting room where it alerts me “waiting for Doctor to join.” After we connected. it was an excellent connection.
So to summarize, once I get ECW to correctly install the Healow agent on all our laptops error free, Televisit will work very well only if patient uses the Healow app. If they want to via the portal, there are risks patients will not connect and won’t be happy with the experience.
I do plan on asking ECW to credit these all test visits since they aren’t true visits.