Telehealth Etiquette

Telehealth Etiquette

Telehealth etiquette - often called "webside manner" - is a key factor in creating positive, effective virtual healthcare experiences for both providers and patients. Because telehealth interactions differ from in person visits, clinicians must pay closer attention to their appearance, physical environment, technology setup, and communication style to maintain professionalism and patient engagement.

The page offers practical tips and best practices to help providers improve virtual visits, including curated training videos, situation-specific etiquette scenarios, and downloadable checklists for getting started. These resources are designed to support high-quality videoconferencing, telephone encounters, and thoughtfully designed virtual care environments.

Resources/Links to trainings and videos:

Telehealth Best Practices - Hawaii State Department of Health Genomics Section

Situation-Specific Etiquette. The Old Dominion University (ODU) Center for Telehealth Innovation, Education and Research (C-TIER) has developed a series of training videos related to telehealth etiquette for a variety of different types of scenarios and consults.

• Introduction
• Medical Consult
• Behavioral Consult
• Being the third wheel
• IP Team Consult Part 1
• IP Team Consult Part 2

Etiquette Checklists. For practitioners just getting started with telehealth, here are a few sample telehealth etiquette checklists. We recommend printing one of these out and having it with you as you get started.

• Make the Most of Your Telemedicine Visit: For Providers
• Telehealth Visit Etiquette Checklist (American Medical Association)
• Development and Validation of the Telehealth Etiquette Competency Checklist: A Delphi Study
• Managing a Telephone Encounter: Five Tips for Effective Communication

Physical Environment. Room design impacts the quality of telehealth visits and shouldn't be overlooked when thinking about telehealth etiquette. The California Telehealth Resource Center has put together this Virtual Care Room Design Toolkit.