ALERT CONTENT PLACEHOLDER

Emergency Department (ED) Virtual Visit Pilot Progam Consent Form

Please read the consent information carefully before proceeding to book your virtual ED appointment.

To protect our patients and staff from COVID-19 and improve wait times, University Health Network is participating in an Ontario Health pilot initiative to offer ED virtual visits for patients with urgent, non-life-threatening conditions. Eligible Patients are scheduled for a virtual appointment through MS Teams with a UHN ED Physician on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Eligibility criteria for participation in a Virtual Appointment with a UHN Emergency Department (ED) Physician include:

  1. You must 18 years of age or older to request an appointment
  2. Your reason for an ED Virtual Appointment is urgent, non-life-threatening in nature
  3. You must have a valid Ontario Health Card
  4. You much have a computer, smartphone or tablet with video and microphone capabilities, and Internet access

UHN's ED Virtual Appointments are not meant to address chest pain, breathing difficulties, heart palpitations, stroke, in labour or ruptured membranes, neck stiffness/altered consciousness, inability to walk, new neurological symptoms, or any other potentially life-threatening condition. If you have these symptoms, please go to your nearest Emergency Department in person.

Your first point of contact for these matters should be your Family Doctor (if you have one). If your Family Doctor is not available, or if you do not have one, a UHN ED Virtual Appointment may be right for you.

Virtual Appointments are scheduled on a first-come, first-serve basis. You will receive an email confirming your appointment within 1 hour of placing the request. This confirmation email will contain a link for your virtual appointment with a UHN Physician your virtual visit will occur through MS Teams at the scheduled time.

If your condition worsens before your scheduled virtual appointment, please consider visiting your local Emergency Department in person.

To cancel a confirmed appointment before your scheduled time, please contact our Admin at ED-VirtualCare@uhn.ca.

UHN's ED Virtual Appointments do not provide prescriptions or renewals for opioids, benzodiazepine, methadone, suboxone, cannabis, stimulants or any other controlled substance. Please see your regular prescriber.

Pilot Program – ED Virtual Appointments

An ED Virtual Appointment means that your visit will be conducted using web-based audio-video conferencing software, please ensure you have a computer/ smartphone/ tablet with internet access and audio-video capabilities. UHN ED Virtual Appointments at UHN will occur using a secure, video conferencing tool service provided by Microsoft, called MS Teams.

For your UHN ED Virtual Appointment, please ensure that you are in a secure, private, and quiet place for your visit. For more information on Virtual Care, visit our guide

For appointment troubleshooting, please visit:


If during your virtual appointment, your ED Physician feels that an in-person assessment is required they will instruct you to present to your local Emergency Department in person. If you change your mind at any time during your appointment and want to see a clinician in-person, first notify your ED Physician and you will be advised to present to your local Emergency Department.

Here is a list of example symptoms and conditions that might lead you to book an ED Virtual Appointment:

Bites & Stings
Body Aches
Rashes
Skin Infection
Skin Infection
Cough
Sore Throat
Nasal Congestion
Sinus Infection
Fever
Frostbite/cold injury

Diarrhea
Headache
Nail Infection
Painless red eye
Eyelid redness or bump
Nausea
Scabies
Lice
Sprains and Minor Injuries

All electronic communication including virtual visits carry some risk. For information about virtual visits and how to protect your privacy during a virtual appointment, please see:


If you do not consent to an ED virtual appointment, please contact your Primary Care Provider or visit your local Emergency Department in person.

If you have questions about your participation in UHN's ED Virtual Appointments, please contact our admin at ED-VirtualCare@uhn.ca.

As part of the Ontario Health initiative, upon completion of the visit, you will be sent an email containing a link to a brief voluntary survey in regards to your experiences with UHN's ED Virtual Care. This survey will be submitted anonymously and submission is completely voluntary. You can choose not to complete the survey and this will not affect your care.

Collection of Information for MRN Creation & Appointment Scheduling

In order to schedule your ED Virtual Appointment, you require a Medical Record Number (MRN) at UHN. The information that you provided on your intake form will be used to create an MRN for you.

Should you have any questions about the privacy of your information while participating in virtual visits in-hospital, please contact UHN Privacy at privacy@uhn.ca.

Importantly:

  1. By proceeding, you consent to have your ED Appointment conducted virtually using MS Teams.
  2. By proceeding, you consent to receive an email containing a survey link following the completion of your ED Virtual Appointment.

You understand that virtual visits are meant for patients over the age of 18 and where the matter is urgent and non-life-threatening.

Proceed with scheduling your Virtual ED appointment:

Book your Emergency Department virtual visit 
(Appointments open 2 hours before the first appointment for the same day)


Quicklinks
Back to Top