These secure text messaging apps deliver fast, accurate, HIPAA-compliant communications inside and beyond hospital walls. Smartphone apps specifically designed for the healthcare environment should allow users to communicate securely with anyone in your organization’s directory using any type of mobile device -and only a few can truly accomplish this. Secure messaging apps on smartphones and tablets.These systems are created to integrate seamlessly with current operations on any type of device or combination of devices. Intended for use in a clinical environment, they are designed to meet the technical and administrative standards required to comply with HIPAA. Is your app HIPAA compliant? Read more on our blog.Ĭommunication solutions designed for the healthcare environment can bridge the security and integration gaps: They can integrate with other solutions and third-party applications, permeating and enhancing clinical workflows. Included is the HIPAA Security Rule, which sets national standards “for the security of electronic health information.” A major goal of this rule is to “protect the privacy of individuals’ health information while allowing covered entities to adopt new technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care.” The average consumer app isn’t designed to interoperate with clinical directories and databases and still maintain the appropriate level of information security. To make things even more complicated, workflows are increasingly based on communication among mobile care team s exchanging protected health information (PHI) such as prescriptions, images, test results, and more.
Some organizations don’t have a standard policy and administrative guidelines to govern messaging services or approved devices, and many clinicians aren’t aware that their consumer messaging services don’t offer appropriate safeguards. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ( HIPAA ) is a federal law that put in place rules about “who can look at, receive, and use patients’ health information as well as measures that protect the confidentiality, integrity, and security of the information.”Ĭonsistently complying with these regulations can be an ongoing struggle (see five common HIPAA violations in mobile communications here).
In the end, you’ll find the right secure messaging solution will allow your clinicians to spend more time with patients, improve clinical workflows, alleviate frustration from searching for the right providers, and enable seamless communication across your health system.Ī challenge for healthcare organizations is that although many of the popular messaging apps and services that consumers regularly use offer encryption, they do not meet the interoperability and flexibility needs-or the strict data and information protection standards-of the healthcare environment.
So, w hat ’ s the best way to rein in the herd of mobile devices at your facility and bring order to the field? There is, of course, no single correct answer, but with the experiences of many hospitals as our guide, we’re offering a roadmap to defining and deploying secure messaging in healthcare, from setting up the plan through end-user adoption. Plus, mobile devices become significantly more useful if they are integrated with the facility’s employee directory and on-call schedule s. Does it matter if a physician want s to use a personal phone or tablet to send messages to colleagues if it makes her job easier? Yes! F ederal laws require that identifiable patient information be kept secure, and neither standard messaging or emailing are considered secure methods of communication.
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