Run telehealth visits patients can join in one tap

Telehealth is built into RafaNest. Mark a service as remote and every appointment booked for it becomes a video visit, with a join link sent to the patient when the booking is confirmed. Patients join from a browser, with no app to install and no account to create. Video visits are part of the Professional plan, and Premium adds optional recording with an AI-drafted visit summary that lands in the patient's chart.

Turn a service into a video visit

Telehealth is set per service. In Treatment types, set a service's delivery to Remote or Hybrid and choose the video option. From then on, every appointment booked for that service is a video visit, and nobody has to toggle anything at booking time. If you only see patients online, add a location named Online with no address so patients can book you. You can offer the same service in person and online, or keep separate remote-only services, and your whole calendar stays in one place.

What the patient does

• The join link goes to the patient when the booking is confirmed, by email, and by text too if the patient agreed to receive texts.
• The link opens a RafaNest page tied to that one appointment, so there is no app to install and no login.
• The call opens 10 minutes before the start time and stays reachable for 30 minutes after the scheduled end. Someone who opens the link earlier is told when the call opens.
• The patient waits in a waiting room until you join, so nobody sits alone in an empty call.

The email reminds patients to join a couple of minutes early to check the camera and microphone, which saves most of the first-visit trouble.

What you do

Join from the appointment in your clinic admin. The moment you are in, the patient is admitted from the waiting room. A single call is capped at 90 minutes by default. You get a warning shortly before the cap and the call ends by itself, so plan longer sessions accordingly. A call left open by mistake cannot run on indefinitely.

Where the video runs

Video runs on Amazon Chime SDK inside RafaNest, not on a third-party meeting link. There is no separate account to connect, and the video service falls under the same Business Associate Agreement with Amazon Web Services as the rest of the platform. That matters because HHS treats a vendor that handles protected health information for you as a business associate. For the full picture, read HIPAA and telehealth, what therapists need in place.

Recording is optional and off by default

By default nothing is recorded. On the Premium plan you can record a specific visit, and RafaNest will not start a recording until you confirm that the patient has consented. That confirmation is written to the access log. Laws on recording conversations differ by state, so make sure your consent process meets yours.

While the call is recorded it is also transcribed. When you stop, RafaNest drafts a summary in SOAP note form and saves it in the patient's chart as a summary note. Read it before you rely on it. Chart notes are append-only, so if the draft needs changes you save a corrected version instead of editing the original. The recording file is not kept for long, because it is deleted automatically after 7 days. The summary stays in the chart.

If your plan changes

Video visits belong to the Professional plan and up. If a clinic moves to Starter, for example when a trial ends without a card, video visits pause until you choose a plan again. Nothing is deleted while they are paused.

Coming from another system? Read how to switch from SimplePractice to RafaNest. Setting up a new practice? Follow the practice software checklist for your first 30 days. This is general information and not legal advice.