Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Handling E-Mails From Patients

I see the option for 'Email Patient', but do you have to use UpDox to interface with Amazing Charts to email patients? No additional information or popup box shows up when clicking on the 'Email Patient' option. Thanks for your help and information as always.

no, MS Office works.

sorry, it wont work to import the patients email into AC. but you can click on the email patient thingy and it will open ms office for you to write the email.

My staff monitors our yahoo email and will copy an email from a patient and paste it into a message attached to their chart and send it to me. I will answer the email, copy my response. Right click on the patients name and open the email from the drop down. This creates an outlook express email to the patient (which autopopulates their email address from demographecs page), I paste my reponse into the message window and send. Then I save the whole message with my response to the chart. The staff has trained themselves to always check the demographic page and enter the patients email address before they send the message to me.
I love this option to answer patient's questions. It is a huge time saver and most of the patients keep it short and sweet. It eliminates phone tag and saves time for my staff as well ( staff time=salary dollars).

Only problem is that little HIPPA issue using a non-secure email server.

Greg

Well, there are ways to get around that, including encrypted/secure messaging if the HIPAA issues are worrisome to you. I asked some questions about this on the forum some months ago...among other things somebody said in response that they had never actually seen a HIPAA policeman. I checked with my malpractice carrier about liability associated with various forms of communication modalities and was advised to provide the patients with a consent form for email communication ( but also discusses telephone communication) which we use. There is nothing really less secure about email than sending a postcard, talking to someone you can't see on the telephone or leaving a message on an answering machine. In many ways email is more secure, requiring a password.

I remember before HIPAA, I used to walk down the streets yelling out the diagnoses of my patients. No, I actually didn't. It was this little thing called violating patient confidentiality. This whole HIPAA thing makes it sound like before HIPAA, there was no privacy. Don't get me wrong, I know you have to follow HIPAA, but I am so sick of it. The actual thing stands for Health Insurance Portability Act, and I have no idea how all this patient confidentiality stuff got in there.

There is a section in there, though, that tells you how to use regular non-encrypted email and be HIPAA compliant. But, it is a little cumbersome. It is somewhat like DHCP for those who are network computer savvy. You know, the computer comes on and doesn't have an IP and then asks the DHCP server if he can please have an IP and then the DHCP server say, "Hi client, do you really need an IP, and the client says yes, and the DHCP server says, OK, here is 192.168.0.14. This is actually true. But, it all happens in about 0.5 seconds.

But getting back to the email thing. There is something in there where the patient emails you. You then email them telling them that this is non-secure email and do you agree to allow me to email you in a non-secure, non-HIPAA compliant fashion in case the HIPAA police are around. Then, they reply to that and say yes, and you have this email trail. But, it is weird, because somehow it has to be in that order. I kind of forget.

But, there is www.certifiedmail.com that works rather well. But, not free, obviously.

I also think it is all about intent. I have patients email me all the time. And, I email them back. As long as I use the reply button, I am in pretty good shape.

Using Onebox (onebox.com) for emailing, it allows me to send a "secure email" to a patient... it actually just sends them an email with a link to my email message, which is kept on the Onebox server. I believe since it never leaves there, it is "secure"... plus I can set a password for the message (like last 4 digits of their SS#)... and have it send me a "read receipt" so I know when they've accessed the message.
It's not able, as far as I can tell, to be set as the default email program (like Outlook or Thunderbird)... so the email address needs to be cut/paste to the address line.
There is a monthly fee for a Onebox account, but it has a lot of other features that make it worth it