Stage 6: Solidification

"Solidification is Step 6. In this Stage, you open up the clinic to a wider patient population, consolidating the lessons learned from the pilot implementation into a fully-functional telemental health clinic. This is not to say that you don't continue to modify and adapt clinic policies and procedures, but in the solidification stage such changes should be part of an ongoing quality improviement process and will be slower and less radical than in the pilot phase. In our experience with rural telehealth clinics that are operating on, say, a weekly basis, it takes anywhere from six to eighteen months to really feel you've fully achieved the solidification of clinical and administrative procedures."