The purpose of the Telehealth Consent is:

• to provide you with the information you need to know about Northside Speech's telehealth service, prior to your call.
  

We appreciate that you have already provided us with a name and date of birth. We are requesting this information again as it allows our computer system to automatically match it up to the correct file, so that we can find your information easily in the future.

The benefits of having a telehealth appointment can be:

• Reducing the wait time to see your speech pathologist.

• Avoiding the need to travel to see your speech pathologist.

• Maintaining management of your health when you can't visit your speech pathologist in person.

• Reducing the risk of exposure to infectious disease.

The risks of having a telehealth appointment can be:

• A telehealth appointment will not be exactly the same as a face-to-face service.

• There could be some technical problems that affect the consultation.

• Northside Speech uses systems that meet recommended standards to protect the privacy and security of the telehealth appointment. However, it cannot guarantee total protection against hacking or tapping into the consultation by outsiders. The risk is small, but it does exist.

Northside Speech uses Cliniko to host its telehealth appointments.

Cliniko is a secure platform designed for healthcare services. It includes:

• End-to-end encryption of all services.

• All data is stored on local, Australian servers.

For more information about Cliniko's healthcare platform (including troubleshooting), you can read more on their website.

The day before your appointment, you will receive a reminder message (either SMS or email) containing a link to join your appointment. Reminder messages are sent automatically, usually around 10am (reminders for Monday appointments are sent on Friday).

For your security, each appointment has a unique link. If you have multiple appointments with us, you will need to check your reminder for the correct link each time.

To join your appointment, click your link. Your appointment will open in your internet browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari). You may need to click "allow" to allow access to your camera and microphone (so that your speech pathologist can see and hear you!).

You can access your appointment from any device that has:

• a reliable internet connection

• a camera, and

• a microphone

E.g. a smartphone, tablet, laptop. Some components of your service may work better if you have access to a larger screen (e.g. a laptop).

Your appointment link will go "live" 10 minutes before your scheduled appointment, and will expire after the end of your scheduled appointment. You will not be able to access it at other times, and may receive an error message if you try.

If you are having any difficulties, please first check:

• Your internet connection is stable and is working,

• Your camera is "allowed" and turned on, and

• Your microphone is "allowed" and turned on.

The settings to do this vary, depending on your device and your internet browser.

Please also check the Cliniko help guide.

If you do not log onto your appointment within 5 minutes of the scheduled start time (and you have not contacted your speech pathologist), your speech pathologist will email you to check that everything is working and you are able to connect.

If you do not log onto your appointment within 15 minutes of the scheduled start time, and do not contact your speech pathologist to explain that you are having difficulty connecting, your speech pathologist will leave the call, and you will be billed for a failure to attend, as per our cancellation policy.

If you are having difficulty during your call, discuss this with your speech pathologist. If you can't hear your speech pathologist (or they can't hear you), you can use the chat box in the top right corner of the screen.

Telehealth is a way of delivering your speech pathology treatment.

In most cases, you should expect to continue the same treatment and service that you were participating in in-person services.

This means, as always, that you are expected to:

• Share your goals and priorities with the speech pathologist.

• Inform the speech pathologist of any changes to your situation or your goals.

• Attend and participate in all appointments to the best of your ability.

• Follow the recommendations (including home practice programs) of the speech pathologist to the best your your ability.

• Share any difficulties you encounter with your treatment with the speech pathologist.

As a capacity-building service, we expect parents and caregivers to stay and be active participants in all appointments. Parents and caregivers should expect to be involved throughout the appointment, as in in-person appointments, and should not expect to be able to work or perform other duties during the appointment.

We have part time administrative support dedicated to invoicing and payments, currently available Tuesdays and Fridays. You should expect to receive payments instructions on Tuesdays or Fridays.

Our payment processor is Medipass. You can read more about them, including FAQs, on their website.

You will receive:

1. An invoice, via email. This invoice will contain the relevant information for your records, and for claiming a Medicare rebate, private health insurance, or NDIS coverage, if applicable.

2. A Medipass link, via SMS. You will need to click on this link to pay for your service.

Payment terms are strictly 7 days.

Any questions about invoicing or billing can be directed to accounts@northsidespeech.com.au