Abstract
The use of communication technologies to provide psychiatric services is broadly termed telepsychiatry. While telehealth is not new and has been in existence for over 50 years, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of this modality and demonstrated its advantages in healthcare delivery. Although on the surface telepsychiatry may simply appear to be the practice of psychiatry through videoconference, like any innovation it presents nuanced regulatory, liability, and practice considerations. Familiarity with relevant rules regarding licensure, prescribing, credentialing, malpractice coverage, and privacy and security is important prior to getting involved with providing virtual services. Clinical issues such as informed consent, establishing a physician-patient relationship, documentation, and standard of care must also be considered. In this chapter, we will review these key issues through the lens of enhancing clinical practices and reducing the risk of medical malpractice and licensure violation when providing these services.
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Khan, S., Jain, A. (2022). Telepsychiatry. In: Ash, P., Frierson, R.L., Friedman, S.H. (eds) Malpractice and Liability in Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91975-7_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91975-7_30
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