With advancements in technology and a recognition of patient privacy needs, healthcare providers and practices now have secure electronic options for messaging. To ensure that sensitive patient information is protected, HIPAA laws were established at the federal level. The use of traditional modes of communication, such as texting or faxing, no longer meet privacy [...]
We’re all guilty of it at one point or another: Unable to find our password and in a rush to send a quick note to a colleague, we open our smartphone messaging app and fire off that message. As that urgent missive makes its way through cyberspace, a cabal of hackers standby, waiting to [...]
Inpatient medicine is unique. Unlike the singular relationship between patient and provider in the office, hospitalized patients are often cared for by a team of doctors and APPs, sometimes changing on a daily basis. How are these providers to relay information to each other? With each day there is another chapter of a patient’s [...]
Long gone are the good old days of pagers and fax machines to help doctors and practices communicate (thank goodness). With the recognition of patient privacy needs and advancements in technology, there are now secure electronic options for messaging. Which should you choose? What do you really need? Privacy Is the Priority Providers and [...]
Secure messaging in the practice of medicine has become commonplace. Adhering to federal privacy laws has become a priority among physicians and healthcare organizations. Working these tools into the typical workflow for the average medical provider is not always easy. Check out three blogs that provide a detailed overview of secure messaging features, myths [...]
In 1992 I was the coolest kid on my block for a day. My dad, who always wanted the latest and greatest technology, had just brought home our first cordless phone. It was white with an extendable antenna. I brought my friends by after school to show it off, and one-by-one they called home [...]
Effective healthcare is a team sport, and that requires communication. Texting is an excellent way to communicate, particularly when the team is busy and on-the-go. Rather than chasing each other to find a moment to connect, team members can reply when they have the time. Texting in healthcare presents unique security challenges, however. Patient [...]
Effective healthcare delivery requires an extraordinary amount of coordination, often involving multiple facilities and platforms. With everyone moving in different directions, it’s critical to have an easy way to communicate that’s also safe and HIPAA compliant. Secure messaging can help your practice accomplish this task, and we’ll break down some of the most common [...]
When the subject of HIPAA violations comes up, it can be easy to focus on the most egregious violations. Consider former UCLA cardiothoracic surgeon Huping Zhou, who was fired from his job and proceeded to illegally access the medical record over three hundred times. He accessed the records of co-workers, including his boss, and [...]
When you’re rounding, how do you communicate patient status updates with your colleagues? We can all agree that regular texting would be the easiest option, but that’s not secure enough. CMS issued a memo clarifying what’s permissible in 2017, stating “All providers must utilize and maintain systems/platforms that are secure, encrypted, and that minimize the [...]
