General Telehealth Policies

• Ensure that you are in a safe and private location during your appointment. If you need to join the appointment from a vehicle, make sure it is parked so you can engage in a safe manner. Appointments will not be conducted if you are driving and will need to be rescheduled.

• Services delivered are required by law to take place within Tennessee State at the time of your appointment. If you are physically located outside of Tennessee at the time of an appointment, you agree to immediately notify your provider and reschedule the appointment.

• Receiving telehealth services may not be advised if you have experienced psychiatric needs that may be classified as acute or unfitting for outpatient services such as recent suicide attempt(s) (i.e., last 3 years), psychiatric hospitalization, psychotic features, severe major depression or bipolar disorder symptoms, moderate to severe alcohol or drug abuse, severe eating disorders, repeated “acute” crises (i.e., occurring once a month or more frequently), among others. In these cases, Dr. Scott may determine that telehealth is not appropriate and recommend a referral to an in-person consultation with another provider.

• It is important to highlight that there is no guarantee that any telehealth appointment will eliminate the need for you to see a healthcare professional in person for appropriate or additional treatment for an active condition.

Benefits of Telehealth

• The ability to expand your choice of service provider.

• More convenient provider options including location, time, no driving, etc.

• Reduces the overall cost and time of treatment due to not having to drive to and from an office.

• Ability to have real time monitoring and reduces the wait time for scheduling office appointments.

• Increased availability of services to homebound patients, patient with limited mobility, and patients without convenient transportation options.

Limitations of Telehealth

• Due to technology limitations, we may not hear all of what you are saying and may need to ask you to repeat things.

• Technology might fail before or during the appointment. Our second line of communication will be via telephone.

• Although every effort is made to reduce confidentiality breaches, breaches may occur for various reasons.

• To reduce the effect of these limitations, we may ask you to describe how you are feeling, thinking, and/or acting in more detail than we would during a face-to-face session. You may also feel that you need to describe your feelings, thoughts, and/or actions in more detail than you would during a face-to-face session.

Connection Difficulties and Backup Plan

If we lose our connection during a video session, we will call the phone number you entered in your chart to troubleshoot the reason we lost connection. If we cannot reach you, we will remain available to you during the entire course of our scheduled session. Should you contact us back and there is time left in your session, we will continue. If the reason for a connection loss (i.e., technology, battery dying, bad reception, etc.) occurs on your part, you will still be charged for the entire session. If the loss for connection is a result of something on our end, we can either complete our appointment or plan an alternate time to complete the remaining minutes of our session.

Telehealth and Emergencies

If Dr. Scott determines that you are presenting to the appointment with a concern, symptom, or presentation that is acute or in need of urgent care, she may recommend immediate transport to the closest emergency room. Dr. Scott may call 911 with the intention to protect your physical integrity if coordinating the transport to an emergency room may be too challenging for you during the crisis situation. 

Security & Confidentiality

The laws and standards of psychiatric care and HIPAA policies apply regardless of the location of appointments. Thus, neither the provider nor the patient may record a medical appointment without previous consent.

We will call you from a private location where we are the only person in the room. You also need to be in a private location where you can speak openly without being overheard or interrupted by others to protect your own confidentiality. If you choose to be in a place where there are people or others who can hear you, we cannot be responsible for protecting your confidentiality. Every effort must be made on your part to protect your own confidentiality. 

 At Elise Scott, M.D. PLLC, we take cybersecurity and your right to privacy very seriously. Therefore, we have contracted services and software that meet the strictest criteria for high security, are HIPAA complaint, and offer Business Associates Agreements.