Start a telehealth company in Burnaby

Step by step

How to start a telehealth company in Burnaby

1. 1

   Apply with an accurate description of the Burnaby business

   Burnaby's business licence guidance states that businesses in the city, including home-based operations, need a valid licence. Describe the actual activity and premises so the relevant category and approvals can be assessed.

   Separate administration, remote professional work, and patient-facing services in the description. Include staff, visitors, equipment, and any product storage or distribution. The term telehealth alone does not tell the city what happens at the location.

   If the operation is home-based, confirm current conditions for the dwelling and activity with the city. Do not rely only on an old application form or assume that rules from another municipality apply. Changes in staffing or public attendance may be important to the review.

   Keep the licence information aligned with public contact details. An administrative address should not generate examination directions or imply walk-in access. Check maps, directories, invoices, and appointment messages. The patient should know where actual care occurs and which contact to use when the online process needs help.

2. 2

   Specify what each supplier is responsible for delivering

   Federal business registration guidance is a starting point for the corporate setup. Obtain advice on the final entities and contracts, then make the division between business operations, professional care, and technology support explicit.

   Write a responsibility description for each critical supplier. Include what information it receives, what event it confirms, how failures are reported, and who can resolve an issue. A broad promise to integrate does not establish what happens when a record or prescription does not arrive.

   Keep professional decisions with the appropriate people. Software can route an appointment or display a status, but it does not create the clinical authority of the doctor or the independent judgment of a pharmacist. Make that distinction visible in the operational design.

   Test one failure per critical dependency using fictional information. Record who notices, who contacts the supplier, and what the patient sees. The exercise should reveal whether the company can continue its accepted responsibilities when a vendor's normal process is unavailable, rather than merely proving that the happy path connects.

   Confirm the availability and integrations your Burnaby service would need.

   Discuss international requirements
3. 3

   Define the B.C. roster and remote clinical scope

   The CPSBC virtual care standard should guide the professional model. Confirm the registration, insurance, conditions, and scope relevant to each doctor and the patients the Burnaby service intends to accept.

   Have the clinical lead define the information needed for the first category. Identify when the selected format is suitable and what triggers a live conversation, examination, or other care route. A questionnaire completion should not be treated as proof that every clinical requirement has been met.

   Explain the possible outcomes before payment. The doctor's assessment may differ from the patient's requested treatment. Review advertising and support language so it does not promise a prescription or a fully remote resolution regardless of the findings.

   Check patient location at the encounter. Someone with a Burnaby account address may be travelling outside B.C. Staff need a reviewed response when the assignment no longer fits, including an appropriate route for a clinical concern that remains open after the booking decision.

4. 4

   Build examination continuity with confirmed acceptance

   Use the CPSBC standard to assess the need for in-person continuity. Establish practical examination arrangements that fit the initial clinical category and patient territory instead of treating a directory of nearby practices as a completed care plan.

   Discuss acceptance, scope, appointment access, and information exchange with the proposed receiving practice. Confirm what the originating team arranges and what the patient must do. Keep public descriptions within the actual agreement and capacity.

   Test the transition from the patient's perspective. Ask an intended user to follow the instructions with a fictional case. Check whether they can identify the next contact, understand any separate process, and report that the appointment cannot be obtained.

   Assign a clinical owner to failures. A declined transfer, missing record, or inaccessible appointment should not vanish when the original visit is marked complete. Include those outstanding tasks in workload planning and establish professional cover for results that arrive after the original doctor's shift or departure.

5. 5

   Assess PIPA responsibilities across the supplier chain

   The B.C. privacy commissioner's guidance for private organizations should inform the PIPA assessment. Determine the roles and any other applicable information requirements for the clinical practice, operating company, and participating suppliers.

   Map what each system collects, uses, stores, and shares. Include support conversations, recordings or transcripts, automated analysis, exports, and backup services. Information sent outside the main chart remains part of the service's privacy responsibilities.

   Ask why each flow is necessary for the reviewed purpose. Remove avoidable collection and broad access. A feature being available in a subscription does not establish that it is appropriate for the health information involved or that the contract covers the intended use.

   Review changes before enabling them with real records. A supplier update can add processing or access without changing the patient-facing design. Give an accountable person authority to pause the connection until the relevant purposes, safeguards, agreements, and patient rights have been assessed.

6. 6

   Prove record access and exit arrangements with fictional data

   Use the commissioner's guidance documents when preparing the applicable access and organizational processes. Give patients a clear route to request information, raise a correction concern, or ask about the handling of their records.

   Train staff to recognize requests in ordinary messages. The patient should not need to use a formal legal label or identify which vendor stores a particular document. Establish internal coordination and appropriate identity checks that do not collect unnecessary new information.

   Ask suppliers to demonstrate retrieval and export using a synthetic episode. Check that the output contains the information the responsible professional needs and can be understood by the receiving organization. An export of account details is not necessarily an export of the complete clinical record.

   Plan for a contract ending, a doctor leaving, or the business pausing operations. Identify who keeps access to records, who handles requests, and who owns open clinical tasks. Remove permissions that are no longer justified without stranding care in an account nobody is responsible for monitoring.

7. 7

   Review patient charges and medicine delivery claims

   The Canada Health Act overview supplies federal context. Get B.C.-specific advice on the proposed clinical services, payer arrangements, and patient charges. A private platform or membership label does not answer the underlying billing question.

   List all costs the patient may encounter and what each covers. Include any outside examination, medicine, delivery, and non-clinical support. Review the outcome when the requested treatment is unsuitable or the assessment needs to change format. Make refund and cancellation messages match the approved policy.

   Use NAPRA's pharmacy verification guidance to establish the licensed party and relevant regulator behind a proposed pharmacy. Agree on the handling of professional questions and the response when the original doctor is unavailable.

   Confirm any delivery claims with the party that fulfils them. Separate assessment, transmission, dispensing, and shipment in patient messages. A successful technical acknowledgement should not become a promise that a medicine is approved, ready, or received. Give the patient a contact route when a stage does not progress.

8. 8

   Review the pilot against the whole dependency chain

   The federal virtual care framework provides context for access and coordination. Apply those aims to the full Burnaby episode, including tasks handled by outside organizations after the initial appointment.

   Review failed transfers, missing records, unresolved pharmacy questions, delayed results, and patient complaints about confusing status. Look for dependencies that repeatedly leave the patient waiting without a responsible contact. Fix the process or narrow the promise before increasing acquisition.

   Set a capacity limit that includes open clinical work. Define who can pause new bookings and how existing patients reach the team during that pause. Rehearse a supplier outage so the response is based on an agreed process rather than a rushed improvisation.

   Bring the tested model to Bask and confirm Canadian availability and the capabilities needed. Discuss information contracts, payments, prescription connections, professional assignments, and local care arrangements. Use difficult synthetic cases in the demonstration and identify the responsibilities that remain with the Burnaby company and its partners outside the software.

Burnaby telehealth FAQ