Home Forums Discussions Problems email to a patient

How do I email a patient without outlook express or microsoft outlook installed? Windows 7 does not have outlook express. When I go to the demographics section and add an email, there is a little folder icon to email a patient. When I click it, it does nothing. Has anyone successfully emailed a patient with AC? How does it work? What has anyone purchased in lieu of outlook express? Thanks for the reply and the help.

Just download a free email client like Mozilla's Thunderbird. It is easy to set up with for office or personal email.

However, think twice before emailing a patient with any medical information -- it isn't HIPAA compliant. Wait for the coming AC "patient portal", or sign up with Updox, which has a HIPAA compliant patient portal.

I have been using Thunderbird for about a year...no huge problems. It is very much like Outlook Express.

oh, so win 7 doesn't come bundled with Outlook? So they want us to actually buy it separately!!?? When Thunderbird is out there?

Maybe they didn't think people were using outlook so the deleted it

Or maybe they felt it was sapping sales from Outlook Pro :P

I wonder which one is correct?

Hey a warm thank you for everyone that replied! I will look into Mozilla's Thunderbird. I will need my network person to look over my setup.

Despite the cost, I keep hearing about Updox and will look into it also. If I could get rid of a fax telephone line it might just pay for itself !

Hey, i remeber the old days before Outlook was known. We used other programs that we paid for to get that capability. Then, MS added Outlook to Windows for "free" and slowly drove the other products out of business. Now, they think there's no competition and that they are entrenched, so they want to force us to buy Outlook. Well, I've experimented with Thunderbird and have no intention of buying Outlook for my new pcs. And i use OpenOffice and have no intention of buying the new MS Office.

Ditto on replacing MS Office with OpenOffice. I like OpenOffice even more since it resembles the MS Office before that ridiculous "ribbon" nonsense.

for those that want to email a patient secruely look into jumbleme.com once you sign up your email account, you can email anyone yoyu want but changing their email address from x@y.z to x@jumbleme.y.z

you just need to make sure your patients know a password to open the email. For my patients all i do is make the password easy for them to remembmer...which has to do something with their name/id etc.

For every file that you want to send to your patient (whether you use Updox, jumbleme, encryption, etc) here is your tip for the day:

If you open the file in OpenOffice, then you can click one button to transform the file into a .pdf file, which some 95% of users will be able to open.

I searched for email and found only this thread - not wanting to duplicate something discussed before. I have a patient who wants to communicate by email. I don't want to go to the hassle of signing up for some encryption service. If I have them sign a form requesting this form of communication, understanding it is not encrypted, should that be sufficient? Anyone else doing this?

I tried OpenOffice before and found it to be a bit of a hassle. But knowing this, I am ready to give it another look.

I'm no expert by any stretch , but have asked this question of an "expert". There is no downside for the patient SENDING you PHI, but if you send it back using unsecure methods, even if he or she has said it is OK, you could be at risk, if your account got hacked or the email intercepted. Big if, but big exposure if it happened.
Having said that I have sent some what watered down responses (e.g. you renal function is unchanged).

Jon,

Was it about file saving defaults, or something else? Curious. If it something I can help with let me know, I owe you call anyway.

One low-pain solution is to use the patient portal if you already have Updox - integrates nicely with AC.

There are also several vendors going down the eVisit model path, so you get paid for doing email correspondence; YMMV.

The suggestion from Nephros of being no-disclosing is another approach [artful].

I would tell you that a *large* corporate client had a patient data breach, and faced the CA SB1386 mandatory disclosure statues that proved quite expensive. Again - they are a big player, not a practice, but the point is really isn't worth the risk to your practice.

Indy, agreed, hence my admonition:
if your account got hacked or the email intercepted. Big if, but big exposure if it happened.

I encourage my patients NOT send me emails. I would much rather have them fax something (like BP readings) to me than email them. Nor do I use email to send any of my sensitive info (such as Tax Returns, financial statements, etc) to accountants, banks or others. I tried one of the free encrypted email programs and it was a real hassle.

Second time I have disagreed with Leslie, but I use email all the time. I find it to be very secure save sending it to the wrong person.

I would much rather answer an email question than have to talk on the phone, and eventually it will be much more reimbursable.

As far as confidentiality, there is a very detailed section of HIPAA on how to do it. It involves a couple of emails to receive permission. You can then talk about HIV if you want, again making sure not to send it to the wrong person.

Certified Mail, which I used for a long time (changed name but can still Google it) is awesome. I only stopped using it because doctors over 45 couldn't understand how to write in one password. This is all changing as all graduating medical students have iPods, Smart Phones, etc.

Everything is moving toward patient portals, but the cost is a big factor.

I have a quick question. How do I set up Ac to work through updox? We currently use updox to email results through the portal, but it would be great if ac would email through updox instead of going through outlook.

I use AC with Updox. I just print whatever to updox printer spool, and then send to patient and import AC simultaneously. Tobin at Updox will respond quickly to whatever question you have. Do you have Updox and AC linked ?

Girldoc, we use Updox that way all the time and it works well. On the other hand, I think I have the same question as Salford: suppose you want to just initiate an email, or send an email as part of signing off an item brought in through an interface. In both of those cases you have the option to "send an email", but can we configure it such that Updox is the default email client rather than some Microsoft abomination program?

Yes we do have updox and ac linked with the interface but my question is exactly what JBS is asking. How do i set updox up to be the default email client. When I was reading the previous post some where suggestion using other email clients, so I was wondering how do I set up updox as the email client.

Boondoc,
I use simple email just as you suggested above for more than a year now.
When I first asked about this on the forum I got lots of " I wouldn't ever do that" type of response. However, someone did point out that they had never seen a HIPPA policeman.
I concluded that the real liability might be a disgruntled employee who wanted to cause trouble by reporting ( to whom?) that you were violating HIPPA regulations. Or, perhaps an ugly malpractice attorney.
Therefore I consulted with my malpractice carrier and they did not have any issues with using regular email to communicate with patients as long as we had them sign a consent to communicate via email. When I sat down to write out the consent form I realized that there was nothing sacred about the phone communication and messages that we have been using in the past. Thus I made the consent inclusive and covered phone as well as email. There are many patients who love email ( gets the practice brownie points). I also love the email, it can be imported to the chart as a message from the patient and avoids the labor and supply costs associated with receiving a fax, attaching it to the chart, answering it, faxing it back and then shredding a little part of the forest.

I would much rather get an email than a page. The only issue is those parents with chronically ill or what they think are chronically ill patients who email a lot. Then I just wait until the emails aren't urgent, and I ignore them. I am just not very confrontational.

I also think if they initiate the email conversation, you are on much firmer ground.

I made the remark about the HIPAA police and still say I will make a costume for Halloween some day.

One more comment and then I will quit.
When a patient calls asking some questions that starts to get complicated my staff asks them to send the question as an email. Generally, the patients are agreeable to this although they sometimes will grouch. But, then the message is in their own words and has not taken up the time of the office staff who would otherwise be copying down what the patient is saying. The downside is that the staff know to ask leading, pertinent questions such as "what do you mean fever, how high is your temperature?" that the patient will omit.
I use dragon and can dictate my reply and can ask necessary questions pretty easily. All in all I think the email is convenient, and helps work flow. I do have a couple of patients who are frequent emailers, I tend to keep my answers to them very short.
I think that "internet care" will be accepted as as service earning reimbursement sooner than telephone medicine....maybe by then my patients will all be well trained!

What do you suppose a HIPAA policeman looks like? Something like the CLIA inspector who visited my office a couple of years ago?
She was overweight, not clean, looked like a real low-end convenience store customer and smelled horribly of cigarette smoke. Your tax dollars hard at work.

We are using email a lot now, that is why I was wondering if anyone knew how to set updox up with AC so updox will be the default email client. How do you change the email client in AC?

Just heard from Tobin at Updox about this (he responded quickly, as usual): unfortunately you cannot initiate emails directly from AC using Updox as the email client. You must first print to the Updox "printer" and email from there.
He said that this may become an option in the future.

Thank you so much I see that we will continue to do that

I have been using UpDox for a year now and the secure email feature has been great for my practice. In fact, I've acquired several new patients because of the fact that I will communicate with them via email. More and more patients are wanting this avenue of communication and I do believe down the road it will be reimbursable.

My only issue with UpDox is that I have patients swearing that they are not receiving my emails from UpDox. I'll get them returned as 'Unread'. The patient will check his Inbox and JUNK folder and nothing is there. Has anyone else had this problem? Fortunately now Updox has the feature of notifying you if the email was not read but I can't figure out why certain patients are not getting the email at all. I'll talk to Tobin about this issue with UpDox as well but just wondering if anyone else has had this issue.

Those who are using emails especially through updox, aer you then saving the emails from the patients and your replies in the charts?

I am very friendly with my patients, most of my patients and I have a very personal relationship as in they in their emails to me ask about vacations or my wife or my parents and I in same ask about them, their weekends, etc...i take it this is going to cause a problem and I should let my patients know that all of those emails should be business only correct? if we are saving to the charts.

Right now, a lot of patients email me all the time but they are using my gmail acocunt that i set up for them to email to and that i have listed on all my business cards.

In my opinion, I would keep these emails strictly business for a multitude of reasons.